The triple constraints in project management is a tool to decide if the change in scope is acceptable. As such, this will help project managers understand the impacts of limitations and risks that must be addressed to ensure the project’s success. So, in this article, we’ll discuss triple constraints, including scope, cost, and schedule, and steps and tools for balancing and controlling them.
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What Are the Triple Constraints in Project Management?
The triple constraint in project management is a tool to decide if the change in scope is acceptable. As such, this will help project managers understand the impacts of limitations and risks that must be addressed to ensure the project’s success. Therefore, every project manager should be familiar with the most significant elements of the triple constraints. There are as follows,
- The scope
- Time ( schedule and deadline)
- Cost ( budget and required project resources)
The Project Scope – The project scope defines its goals, objectives, deliverables, functions, and features. In addition to that, it will help you determine the tasks required to complete the project. So, this encompasses the sum of products or services to be provided, explaining what’s being done and how much of it.
Project Time – The project time refers to the project’s schedule, deadline, and the date for the rollout of the final deliverables. Furthermore, for effective time management, project managers should follow these steps. Read More: Schedule Baseline in Project Management
- Project planning
- Project scheduling
- Project monitoring and controlling
Project Cost – The project cost refers to the resources (budget and other resources) needed to complete the project on time and in its predetermined scope. Read More: Cost Baseline in Project Management
As discussed earlier, these scope, time, and cost link and impact each other. Therefore, project managers should consider the following things for making a successful change.
- Changing the one project constraint will affect the other two. So, it is crucial to prioritize among scope, time, and cost.
- If a change needs to be made to the project constraint, project managers should consult with the sponsor and relevant stakeholders to get their approval before changing it.
- Prioritizing each element of the project’s triple constraint will help you direct the project to different conditions. On the other hand, it will help you ensure the project’s success.
Furthermore, the project triple constraint allows project managers to calculate the impact of external factors and influences. It also helps them highlight how tradeoffs can and should be considered. As well as this is a simple technique to alert stakeholders of scope creep. However, project managers can assist project managers in tracking the budget, scope, and timeline of their projects. Establishing triple constraints in project management helps managers raise an alert before a project is jeopardized. Moreover, Project managers can manage triple constraints effectively and efficiently using project management software, for example, Wrike and Asana.
Steps for Balancing the Triple Constraints
Every project manager should understand how to handle the three constraints because they serve as a visual reminder that actions made regarding limitations will affect others. Therefore, project managers should know they will always need to manage each project’s schedule, budget, and scope. Moreover, separately managing any of these is difficult since every decision made regarding one impacts the other. So, the following are some vital steps that will help managers to balance the triple constraint in project management.
- Use proper ways to communicate the project scope
By using the proper way to communicate the project scope, project managers can ensure the success of their project. Furthermore, they must understand each component of their project plan and anticipated outcomes. On the other hand, project scope helps your stakeholders (primary and secondary stakeholders) reach an agreement on what is being delivered. However, they must understand how it will affect the triple constraints if they wish to make changes. After making any changes, you must document them in your relevant project documents to ensure everyone is up to date.
- Set realistic project deadlines
Setting realistic project deadlines is another vital step in balancing the triple constraints. As a project manager, you must keep the project’s progress on schedule. Therefore, creating a timeline is crucial because it will help you access and understand your project status effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, you can view your project timeline anywhere/anytime as a visual reference. So, By using a project management tool such as Gantt chart, you can create a project timeline.
On the other hand, setting realistic project deadlines will help project managers ensure the project’s success and stay within the project budget and scope.
- Allocate project resources
Allocating project people with the relevant skill set to suitable tasks is crucial for assigning resources efficiently. On the other hand, it will help you ensure your team members have the necessary material or equipment, and funding will lead you to success. Read More: Top 3 Project Resources Every Project Manager Should Understand
- Closely work with the client
As a project manager, you should closely work with your client because it will help you to understand what the client expects from the project. Therefore, start with determining whether they have a triple constraint in mind. However, if deciding on project guidelines seems unachievable, use the project constraints to analyze choices and explore potential tradeoffs.
- Monitor and control project progress as needed
Every project needs well-defined plans that are crucial for its success. However, the project strategy will be useless if you do not track its progress when necessary. So, monitoring helps you to make necessary adjustments while maintaining the balance of the project’s triple constraints, and it also helps keep your goals reasonable and attainable.
How to Manage Project Triple Constraints
Managing the project’s triple constraints may be complex. However, project managers can use the following things to handle each of them.
Project Cost
To effectively manage the project, estimate the costs for all the tasks and activities in the project scope. Accordingly, create a project budget based on the estimated project costs. On the other hand, you can use the project budget as a cost baseline, which is employed to control costs during the project execution phase. As a project manager, you must control all project costs to keep spending under the project budget because it helps you ensure the project’s success and increase the chances of the profitability of the project. However, you’re responsible for adjusting the project budget when necessary. But, you must get approval from the relevant stakeholders.
Project Schedule
To manage the project schedule, project managers can use a Gantt chart to visualize the project timeline, define task sequences, and effectively monitor the duration of each task. Furthermore, they can use different scheduling techniques, such as the critical path method, to determine the total duration of their project, and they can use a Work Breakdown Structure to identify all the project activities.
You must also create policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, executing, and monitoring the project schedule effectively and efficiently. As well as allocate project resources using a resource’s schedule to avoid bottlenecks and ensure the project’s success. Further, comparing the schedule baseline to actual progress is crucial because it helps you determine if projects are on track.
Project Scope
To manage the project scope, you should create a scope management plan because it helps you clearly define what project activities will be done. Therefore, when managing project scope you must prioritize your project tasks, enabling you to plan and assign resources effectively. After creating this plan, you can share it with your relevant stakeholders, so it will help you ensure everyone is on the same page.
Related Post: 6 Essential Elements in Project Scope Management
Furthermore, as a project manager, you should use change orders to avoid scope creep, keep track of all changes made to the project scope, and manage your project stakeholders’ expectations to maintain the project scope effectively. Moreover, you can use task management software, tools, or techniques to keep track of the project tasks and activities in the scope.
Tools for Controlling the Triple Constraints
Project management software is the best tool for controlling the project’s triple constraints effectively and efficiently. So, as a project manager, you should have a good sense of selecting the right tool to manage your project’s triple constraints.
Project Cost
Project management software helps project managers track project expenditures to ensure that they’re not overspending. Accordingly, project management software will help you create project budgets, enter hourly rates for all the project resources, and create a real-time dashboard track and generate reports on price and other variables across your project in easy-to-read graphs and charts.
So, this method helps you to keep track of your expenses and ensure you’re on track with your budget. Furthermore, you can identify budget issues before they become a huge problem.
While managing triple constraints in project management, project managers can use the following tips to increase the chances of the project’s success.
- Understanding your priorities
- Stick to the project plan
- Add constraints when needed
- Consult with project primary and secondary stakeholders when needed
Project Schedule
Project managers can use project management software to control and track project schedules effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, when tasks are modified, the changes are immediately reflected and implies your dashboard and reports are up to date throughout the software. As well as, timesheets are synchronized with team tasks, making it easy for team members to pick and enter their assignments, which may be viewed and approved within seconds. So, project management software is a great way to control project schedules to ensure acceptable outcomes and stay within the budget and scope.
Project Scope
Project scope is another vital constraint in project management. So, it’s crucial to control to gain acceptable project outcomes. By using project management software, project managers can control their project scope effectively and efficiently because those are flexible enough to change to keep up with the changes in the scope. On the other hand, Gantt charts and Kanban boards are great ways to gain visibility into your work. For example,
Kanban boards help project managers deliver tasks to team members when the resources and capacity required to complete them become available. So then, the Kanban board adjusts to the change in scope. As well as the color-coded charts illustrate who is burdened with work and who is accessible. So this will help you to understand and quickly balance the workload when teams are over or under allocated. However, it will help you stay within the project budget and schedule.
Conclusion
Triple constraints in project management are crucial aspects and will always exist. Thus, project managers should be responsible for balancing triple constraints to achieve acceptable project outcomes. Furthermore, you can use project management software or tools to manage and control project constraints effectively and efficiently.
