Managing Constraints and Delivering Projects Successfully

“Champions keep playing until they get it right.” – Billie Jean King

Some years ago, at a project review meeting, we asked all relevant stakeholders to review a major new feature that our customer had proposed.

We held the customer in high regard, and the feature made perfect sense, so we wanted the team to be aware of the demands and plan for the feature's delivery within the pre-determined timeframe.

During the meeting, an experienced engineer said in exasperation, "You have the choice of having all the features, saving money, or delivering quickly.

But you can only have two, so which do you choose?”

Project managers and leaders who can work through the above dilemma successfully will have successful projects.

This is a problem that a lot of technology companies are dealing with.

This challenge, however, goes beyond just technology.

Most projects require balancing the three elements of scope, time, and cost.

Quality = Scope + Time + Cost

Scope = the list of tasks to be completed in order to reach the project goals.

Time = how long it takes to complete all the tasks in the project.

Cost = the total amount of money (or budget) required to complete the project.

To put it simply, when the budget, scope, or schedule of a project is modified, one of the other two sides of the triangle will be impacted.

Also, any such modification will have an effect on the Quality at the center - either in a positive or a negative way.

As a leader, your task is to prevent the project from collapsing due to the three constraints.

Attempting to change one or more of these restrictions while preserving the rest often results in failure.

This failure could present itself in either the form of increased cost or longer timelines, or a low-quality product that needs to be redone.

To gain the balance you desire, you must be willing to make certain trade-offs.

For Example:

Time and Scope: if you are running behind schedule, you can reduce the project scope in order to reduce the total time it takes. If the stakeholders come up with extra tasks to be done, the project timeline can be lengthened.

Cost and Scope: When you reduce the size of the project, it implies you'll be working on fewer tasks, which should lead to reduced costs (optimally). As you increase the scope of the project, the associated costs rise too.

Cost and Time: Usually, cost and time are linked in projects. The longer you make use of the highly skilled resources or rental equipment on your project, the higher your costs will be. The opposite is also true.

Why Does This Concept Matter?

I have been in numerous such situations as a business and technology leader over the years.

From my experience, it is extremely difficult to modify one condition without changing anything else.

We've attempted to do this multiple times, but the end result has been unsatisfactory.

Being in denial will not serve a leader well, so it's best to have these conversations often and use the constraints to one's benefit.

7 ways this knowledge can be of benefit to you include:

1. Being mindful of the results of changing one restriction on the others helps to better manage alterations in your project.

2. Risk management processes can be put in place to reduce the risks of continuous scope changes, budget overruns, and missed deadlines as potential risks can be identified and precautionary measures can be taken.

3. Prioritization of a project - you are better able to determine what is most important and what matters most to those involved. When a hard cutoff date is due to outside causes, you can adjust other conditions to meet this crucial requirement.

4. Establishes clear deadlines and goals so all involved parties can agree on what is important and what is expected in the early stages of the project.

5. With this understanding, you will prioritize regular stakeholder engagements during the project's span to concur on any adjustments needed. And regular communication is key to success.

6. Teams remain accountable and agile - when requirements are clear to all it is easier to hold people responsible. Additionally, it is simple to accommodate to evolving business needs if any of the constraints need to be modified.

7. Diminishing the probability of additional tasks - when the impact of making changes to the project is known by all stakeholders, it is less likely that there will be continuous scope changes.

The Trump Card - Innovation

When a fresh approach is found to do something faster or cheaper, it is possible to make the changes without changing the other rules or quality.

For example, a company could transition from a manual background check process during the hiring process and customer onboarding to an automated system for instantaneous background checks.

This transformation could let them increase the amount and geographical area of target customers or employees they hoped to recruit without altering the proposed time period for the exercise.

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