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The Iron Triangle is Rusty
In addition to time, cost, quality, project managers need to focus on these two constraints.
Why is the project management “iron triangle” out of date?
We’ve had it drilled into us since we started managing projects — the iron triangle is the most important thing to manage:
Time — how long it will take to deliver the thing you’ve been asked to do? Whether it’s an office block, an upgrade or simply a website, your stakeholders want to know when they’ll get it and that’s when you need to deliver.
Cost — almost as important as when you’ll get it is how much it will cost. Once you’ve quoted, that’s it. You’re held to that number and the moment it changes, you’re in trouble and change request territory.
Quality (or scope) — of course, you also need to manage ‘it’. This is your deliverable, of the right quality and specification. Of course, have you ever met a stakeholder with such brilliant vision that the smallest detail is specified? No, of course not — but yet you’re held to your word on what you’ll deliver.
As a project manager, as long as you deliver your scope on time and on budget you’re a hero. However, COVID has shown the weakness of thinking about just these dimensions and the incoming age of Product teaches us that the…
