PM BASICS 005: PROJECT TRIPLE CONSTRAINTS

Here's hoping that the PM BASICS series at PM4K is helping you acquaint yourself to the basic concepts of Project Management. Continuing with the PM BASICS series, in this post lets look at the most debated topic in the profession of Project Management; Project Triple Constraints.

These Triple Constraints are also commonly referred to as ‘The Iron Triangle’, ‘The Triple Triangle’ or ‘The Triple Trap’.

Every project is constrained in different ways. In its most basic form (which is what we will be covering in this post), it consists of Scope-Time-Cost which is commonly referred to as a project's Triple Constraints:

• Scope: What work will be done as part of the project? What unique product, service, or result does the customer or sponsor expect from the project?

• Time: How long will it take to complete the project? When will it start? When will it finish?

• Cost: What will it cost to complete the project? What is the project’s budget?

A change to any of the triple constraint, inadvertently has the potential to alter the other constraints. To balance out these, often competing, constraints throughout the project is one of the most challenging duties of a Project Manager. Which one of the 3 constraints, do you think is the most important of them? Although a typical answer to this question would be, "All are equally important"; this is definitely something we should discuss in detail in a PM4K Discussion soon.

 

[Mathew@PM4K]

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