All project management professionals worth their weight are all too aware of the project triple constraints – Time, Cost & Scope, all of which have an effect on the Quality of the outcome.
If you want a project to be delivered in a short amount of time, you need to limit the scope and it’s likely to cost more. If you want it to cost a small amount, the scope needs to be limited and time needs to be shortened. If you want to throw everything in to your project, including the kitchen sink, it’s certainly going to cost more and take longer. We’ve all seen the signs in the mechanic’s garage that warn of a quick job not necessarily being a good job.,
If you want a project to be delivered in a short amount of time, you need to limit the scope and it’s likely to cost more. If you want it to cost a small amount, the scope needs to be limited and time needs to be shortened. If you want to throw everything in to your project, including the kitchen sink, it’s certainly going to cost more and take longer. We’ve all seen the signs in the mechanic’s garage that warn of a quick job not necessarily being a good job.,
So, while we start with the aforementioned as the basic premise of any project I am aghast by the number of organisations that think that these basic “rules” don’t apply to them and their particular project.
I use the example of a current client who are implementing a large scale project and have included no less than 30 change requests into the project and still insist that it be completed within the same timeframe. The point they miss is that these triple constraints still apply. The scope has increased, the cost has certainly increased, however they expect that the timeframe will remain the same and the quality will remain intact.
There is no reason, in this particular project, that their timeframe with the increased scope cannot be met, however, it will have a detrimental effect on the quality of the finished product.
What’s more bewildering is that only 18 months ago, this organisation went through a similar exercise and released a product to their business that failed miserably due to quality issues as it was rushed to market. You’d think lessons so recent would have a marked effect on their decision making processes. I guess old memories die with the people when they leave the organisation.
With the introduction of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Cloud Based business applications, this story is becoming all too common.
The IT department is being left out of key I.T. decisions and individual department heads are jockeying for position. I.T. is no longer seen as an enabler, but rather as a blocker, for departments to achieve their key business needs. What’s more worrying, the individual departments have had little I.T. project experience and “buy” this experience, resulting in the purchase of the services of “yes” people that are only concerned with where their wage is coming from and choose not to bite the hand that feeds and provide the advice that is clearly required regarding the project triple constraints.
You only need to Google the project statistics to realise that there is something awry with the way projects have been run historically. You’d also expect that given the knowledge, the statistics and the results that have been amassed that these project professionals heed such information to give their projects a chance of a better outcome. It seems not though.
I use the example of a current client who are implementing a large scale project and have included no less than 30 change requests into the project and still insist that it be completed within the same timeframe. The point they miss is that these triple constraints still apply. The scope has increased, the cost has certainly increased, however they expect that the timeframe will remain the same and the quality will remain intact.
There is no reason, in this particular project, that their timeframe with the increased scope cannot be met, however, it will have a detrimental effect on the quality of the finished product.
What’s more bewildering is that only 18 months ago, this organisation went through a similar exercise and released a product to their business that failed miserably due to quality issues as it was rushed to market. You’d think lessons so recent would have a marked effect on their decision making processes. I guess old memories die with the people when they leave the organisation.
With the introduction of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Cloud Based business applications, this story is becoming all too common.
The IT department is being left out of key I.T. decisions and individual department heads are jockeying for position. I.T. is no longer seen as an enabler, but rather as a blocker, for departments to achieve their key business needs. What’s more worrying, the individual departments have had little I.T. project experience and “buy” this experience, resulting in the purchase of the services of “yes” people that are only concerned with where their wage is coming from and choose not to bite the hand that feeds and provide the advice that is clearly required regarding the project triple constraints.
You only need to Google the project statistics to realise that there is something awry with the way projects have been run historically. You’d also expect that given the knowledge, the statistics and the results that have been amassed that these project professionals heed such information to give their projects a chance of a better outcome. It seems not though.
What is it that needs to be done or shown to these project professionals for them to understand that repeating the way that projects are executed is not going to produce a different result? Do we need to ensure that anyone that wants to be a project management professional hold an appropriate qualification? Will that really make a difference though? Probably not.
All I know is that the triple constraints will never change, and the sooner that organisations accept that is the case, the sooner they will have a successful project outcome – and by this, funnily enough, I’m not talking about the statistics around the triple constraints, but rather business wide adoption of the solution. That’s real project success.
All I know is that the triple constraints will never change, and the sooner that organisations accept that is the case, the sooner they will have a successful project outcome – and by this, funnily enough, I’m not talking about the statistics around the triple constraints, but rather business wide adoption of the solution. That’s real project success.
RSS Feed
