The Triple Constraints Of A Project

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Project management (PM) facilitates to a structured approach to managing projects for project managers. PM reduces risk and provides assurance by providing tools at the same time environment to plan, observe, track, and deal with schedules, quality as well as resource.PM can be applied into both soft and hard projects such as personnel projects, IT, construction, finance, sports, and event planning, HR etc. Project management gives advantages like;

Better control of financial, physical, and human resources

Improved customer relations

Shorter development times

Lower costs

Higher quality and increased reliability

Higher profit margins

Improved productivity

Improved productivity

Better internal coordination

Higher worker morale (less stress)

The meaning of "project"

Various scholars and institutions have defined the term project in many ways. Turner defines it as "….. An endeavour in which human else a machine, material and monetary resources are well thought-out in a novel way, in view of undertaking a distinctive scope of work, of given requirement, within constraint of cost as well as time, so as to deliver advantageous change defined by quantitative and qualitative objectives"(Burke,R. 2003).By providing a definition PMBOK says that " project is a short-term venture undertaken to create a inimitable product or service"(PMBOK. 2008).

According to above definitions it can be find out following characteristics in projects as shown in

Chart 1. Meaning of Terms in Project Definition

Term

Means that a project

temporary

Has a beginning and end

Endeavour

Involves effort, work

To create

Has an intention to produce something (project "deliverables)

unique

One of a type, to a certain extent a collection of indistinguishable items

product

physical objects, though could take account of things like computer software, stage works or film

service

Might include the restaurant or a Spa, for instance, but not its daily operations.

Usually project attracts changes to the organization or it adds extra value. In addition to that projects are subjected to constraints of schedule/ time, Cost/resources and Scope/Quality (Figure 1) (PMBOK. 2008).It seems that projects are often uses as a vehicle to achieve organizational strategic plan. Following strategic considerations influence on projects.(PMBOK.2008)

Market demand

Strategic opportunity or business need

Customer request

Technology advance

Legal requirement

Figure 1: The Triple Constraints of a Project

Source: Adopted from Duncan Haughey, PMP," Understanding the Project Management Triple Constraint"<http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/understanding-the-project-management-triple-constraint.html (19 Dec 2011)

Project stakeholders

These are the parties who are actively involved project or parities having positive or negative impact on project performance (Figure 2). They have Varying levels of responsibility and authority at the sometime can change over the project lifecycle (Appendix A). Project Manager must be able to manage the influence of them in relation to the requirements and balance stake holders’ interests.

Figure 2: Project Stakeholders

Source: PMBOK Guide,2008

Meaning of project management

Project management is "the application of knowledge, skills, tool, and techniques to venture actions focusing meet the project requirements" (PMBOK. 2008).To manage a project it is necessary to focus on, identifying the project requirements, addressing the various needs, concerns and expectations of the stake holders as the project is planned and carried out, and on constraint factors as Scope, Quality, Schedule, Budget, Resource and Risk.

There are several phases in managing a project which are called process groups as shown in below (Figure 3).

Figure3: Five Major Process Groups

Source: Adapted from CTH Lecture Notes

Factors influence on project

Both internal and external factors have positive or negative influence on success of a project and they may enhance or constrain project options. They are considered as inputs to planning process (PMBOK.2008). These environmental factors include,

Organizational culture structure and processes;

Government or industry standards;

Infrastructure

Existing human resources

Personnel administration

Company work authoritarian systems

Market place condition

Stakeholder risk tolerance

Political climate

Organization’s established communication channels

Commercial databases

Project management information systems

In another words there is an influence of PEST/SLEPT factors positively or negatively on success of a project.

Project management theory

For the easiness of project management some institutions have invented and have published several project management theories. This theory consists basically from concepts and casual relationships between them that relate such concepts (Whetten.1989).In generally theory of PM provides prescriptive approach and reveal how the relevant action contributes to the respective goals set to it. Further PM theories facilitates to plan and design, in order of realizing intended product facilitates to control and to improve systems intended to use and to minimize the cost and level of utilization . Another plus factor of project management theory is the facility to achieve external goals related to customers such as quality dependability and flexibility.

To run a project successfully, it is necessary to draw the attention towards management areas like scope, time, cost, quality, human resource, communications, risk and procurement which are called nine Project management Knowledge Areas (Appendix B). Moreover it is necessary to ensure the coordination/ integration of all above mentioned knowledge areas to fulfil the project objectives successfully (PMBOK, 2008).Project management framework (Figure 4) facilitates to navigate safely towards the project success effectively utilizing above management areas.

Figure 4: Project Management Framework

Source: Adopted from PMBOK Guide, 2008

Project Management Tools and Technique

To evaluate and to assist the process various tools and techniques are being used. Few commonly used tools and techniques are shown in Appendix C. The most common and important tools used in PM are cost benefit analysis, Gantt charts and project management software.

Cost benefit analysis (CBA)

CBA is a method of evaluating the investment over the benefits expected to gain from particular project. It estimates the project the value to facilitate to make decision whether it is good enough to continue or to undertake. Even though this tool usually used to verify financial performances of a particular project it can be analyze social benefits, biological benefits as well as environmental benefits etc.CBA quantify the cost which are negative factors and benefits which are positive factors. This facilitates to explore unknown factors and expenses which are submerged and not visible at once. In addition to above pros CBA paves the path to flexibility by providing initial ignitions for discussions for amendments of particular project since it identifies associated advantages and disadvantages (identifying actual benefits and actual cost).apart from above advantages , the main advantage of CBA is the easiness to understand. In another word CBA make understand to everybody the monitory value and nature of the particular project further it can be applied to various scenarios, various locations etc. But there are some cones in CBA. Some times CBA might leads to complications in estimation process. for an example if somebody use CBA to decide regarding implementation of a project or giving it up that particular project it is necessary to done proper an very accurate estimations. Inaccurate calculations may show the particular project is viable at the beginning but it leads to ended up by wasting money of the company. Sometimes due to the change of the expectations of consumers the best estimations might not line up with customer expectations and miss out trail-blazing opportunities. The second disadvantage of CBA is that it’s all measuring units are quantitative.

It basically finds costs and profits and compare. When it comes to a qualitative benefit it can become more confusing. For an instance for a program like increment of employee bonus CBA shows only the cost but not benefits. It cannot determine employee the increasing of employee satisfaction, reduction of employee turnover etc. The third disadvantage is the improper monitoring might double count/overestimate the benefits.

Gantt chart

Gantt chart is also a commonly used tool in managing projects. It is a tool which provides an excellent graphical presentation to illustrate group of milestones and to demonstrate individual resources schedule to time. Further it helps to communicate project plans effectively and efficiently. Hence it is easy to assimilate and understand .It illustrates activity progress very clearly. Once bar chart is scheduled it helps to forecast the procurement schedule, the resource histogram and cash flow statement. When the bar chart is revised it provides excellent management tool for planning, controlling and used as a key document in decision making functions. But Gantt chart has few drawbacks also. Gantt chart does not effectively address for dependencies, dependencies are hard to verify, hard to illustrate two sets of dates while using techniques like earliest start date and latest start, changes to the schedule require to redrawing of the chart, numerous setting up possibilities cannot be shown in the same chart. Further it is not easy to illustrate resource assignment and it does not highlight work breakdown structure elements with the utmost risk of failure or holdup (figure 5).

C:\Users\TOSHIBA\Desktop\gantt chart\project management task 2.jpg

Figure 5: Sample Gantt chart for a Bio Gas Project of a hotel

Source: Concept of Author

Work breakdown structure (WBS)

WBS is also a tool used to define and group elements of project’s by helping project managers’ to organize and define the total work scope of the project.WBS has four key benefits as shown in below.

WBS creates project management team, project manager and customer to define the required steps to build and deliver the moulded product or service by encouraging to dialogues that helps to clarify ambiguities, assumptions, narrow down the scope of the project and identify critical issues early on.

WBS puts the foundation to develop an effective budget and effective schedule where as it enables to allocate resources for a specific task.

WBS increases accountability of tasks by detailing for the easiness of the particular people. Further. Because of this particular individuals cannot hide under the covers of broadness.

The disadvantage of WBS is it consumes plenty of times to develop and necessary a big effort. Further it necessary a knowledge transfer and brainpower. Another disadvantage of WBS is necessity of continuous refinement since the first iterations tend to changes with the project changes.

WBS, MindView, simple, WBS software, Work breakdown structure software

Figure 6: Sample Work Break down Structure for building a House

Source: Match ware; Software for creative minds, "What is a WBS?",< http://www. matchware.com /en/products/mindview/mindview2_be/wbs.htm>

Project management software (PMS)

PMS is also a tool which designed to help project team to complete project on time .Project management software provides features for scheduling, tracking, reporting, and calendar functions which to facilitates associates to always access in to the system irrespective of where they are. This keeps project on track throughout the project lifecycle and it helps to save money and minimize the chances to miss the estimated time of completion.(ex: Microsoft Project, Matchware Mindview 5 )

TQM

TQM is a system which continuously improves quality and performance of the project team.TQM amalgamates all quality management features. First it identifies clients’ real needs; methods of achieving them keep emphasis on continuous improvement while keeping customers satisfied (Burke,R. 2004). Improvement of the reputation, higher employee morale and low cost are the advantages of TQM. The initial introduction cost, workers resistance of changing and delay of seeing benefits can be shown as disadvantages of TQM.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

CPM To effectively plan and control a project managers need a facility to process large amounts of data quickly as well as accurately to enable them to create order in a complex situation.CPM offers project managers a structured approach to meet these needs. Here network analysis techniques are used to predict project duration by means of analyzing which path shows the least amount of scheduling flexibility. Further, early dates are calculated using a forward pass and late dates are calculated using a backwards pass.

http://www.business-case-analysis.com/images/figure2_PERT_1.jpg

Figure 7: Sample Critical path of a project (Shown in red Colour)

Source:  Marty Schmidt, "Project Management: Statistical Quality Control for Project Progress Charting", Solution Matrix Limited; Business Case Analysis<http://www.business-case- analysis. Com/schmidt-project-progress-chart.html> (26 January 2013)

Management by Objectives

The essence behind the MBO is to provide clear idea about the roles and expected responsibilities from them (wikipedia.org). It makes understand employees that how their activities effects on the success of the project. MBO gives following advantages.

Involvement of employees for the goal setting process and the empowerment of employees increases the job satisfaction as well as their motivation.

Frequent reviews and interactions between project team, superiors and employees help to develop healthy relationships and solve many problems via better communication and coordination.

Clarity of goals

Project team members tend to generate higher commitment towards the objectives set by themselves.

Project managers can link the objectives of project team with the project objectives.

Conclusion

Project management provides a comfortable vehicle to achieve project objectives for the benefits of an organization. It facilitates for healthy planning, organizing and controlling of a project via identifying behaviours of external and internal factors relevant to the particular organization. Further it helps to the better utilization of knowledge, skills, global trends and increases customer orientation. It provides various tools, techniques and concepts for project manager to complete their task within the scheduled time and evaluate project progress during the implementation process.