SCOPE TRIANGLE IN PROJECT

SCOPE TRIANGLE IN PROJECT

Scope Triangle’ or the ‘Quality Triangle’ shows the trade-offs inherent in any project.

The triangle illustrates the relationship between three primary forces in a project.

• Time is the available time to deliver the project
• Cost represents the amount of money or resources available 
• Quality represents the “fit-to purpose”that the project must achieve to be a success.

In reality the normal situation is that one of these factors is fixed and the other two will vary in inverse proportion to each other. 

For example “Time” is often fixed in a project and the “Quality” of the end project will depend on the “Cost” or resources available. Similarly if you are working to a fixed level of “Quality” then the “Cost” of the project will largely be dependent upon the “Time” available.

A phenomenon known in project management circles as “Scope creep” can be linked to the triangle too. Scope creep is the almost unstoppable tendency a project has to accumulate new functionality. Some scope creep is inevitable since early on, your project will probably be poorly defined and will need to evolve. A large amount of scope creep however can be disastrous. When the scope starts to creep new functionality must be added to cover the increased scope. This is represented by the quality arm of the triangle, representing the ability of the ‘product’ to fulfill users’ requirements. 

More requirements fulfilled = a Better Quality Product

In this situation you have three, and only three options :

1. Add time – delay the project to give you more time to add the functionality

2. Add cost – recruit, hire or acquire more people to do the extra work

3. Cut quality – trade off some non-essential requirements for the new requirements

If the art of management lies in making decisions, then the art of project management lies in making decisions quickly! When faced with such a dilemma you should not hesitate to take one of the three options listed above. Delaying raises the risk of your project failing.

The best project managers will juggle all three like hot potatoes and will make decisions every day which effectively trade-off time vs quality vs resources.