Friday, September 13, 2013
Describe the triple constraint. What are the three components and what is the relationship between them?
The triple constraint are the restrictions on time, cost, and scope of the project. The relationship between them though is somewhat interesting as any increase in one usually leads to a corresponding increase in at least one of the other two. This means that a project manager that begins to lose control over the project could end up facing a snowball effect of increasing costs, continually increasing time to finish, and unnecessarily increasing complexity which would ultimately cause the project to end in failure. On the other hand, too tight a restriction of any of the elements of the triple constraint, particularly without any flexibility on the project manager's part, will lead to the project's goal being unattainable. Project managers therefore, have to balance flexibility and control over the triple constraints in order to ensure the success of their project.
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I think the triple constraint is every important because otherwise the project could end up being a disaster. For example, at my company a few months ago I was assigned a project however there was no set time and I could never get a budget from the stakeholders. It was very frustrating and we ended up putting the project on hold because no one could make up their minds. It was a very difficult time not being able to get straight answers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Leah that the triple constraint is critical, but I believe too much restriction is not always a good thing; excessive restrictions can cause rushed work which could cause more bugs. One of the first websites I ever created was a rush job; I was given 3 weeks to do 2 months worth of work. In order to meet the deadline I used many shortcuts such as using other designers code and templates. The website broke within 2 days of launch and I hade to basically start over from scratch to make it run properly.
ReplyDeleteLeah - This happens many time in projects and shows the importance of a project sponsor.
ReplyDeleteShawn - Unrealistic deadlines usually means more time in QA. I am sure you were frustrated.