The Triple-Header

Rule of thumb that every Project Manager lives by (or should live by): Never triple-constrain a project!

How do you communicate that to the project sponsor?

Still working on that one ...

In our project at Company X, I would say the project is pretty close to being triple constrained.

1. Cost: The company outlet is severely restricted in how much corporate will allow them to spend. However, this is the constraint that I see giving the most.

2. Quality: They manufacture airplane parts and as such, certifications, quality standards, FAA approval, Boeing/Goodrich approvals, and so on and so forth down the line, are not optional. However, this constraint does give in aspects such as repainting, purchasing new equipment, etc, due to time and cost respectively.

3. Time: When the lease for the old place is up, it's up. The building will be reclaimed by the landlord and Company X must be gone.

Working on a project with so many high-risk constraints brings some greater measure of stress, but also an opportunity for the Project Manager to shine.

Thus, my work partner and I have been using the juggle-swap-cut-insert method to keep priority tasks in the forefront, to keep team members focused and motivated, and to convince function managers to stop sliding tasks out (they used up all the available slack in the first three months of the move, much to our chagrin, and contrary to our advice and urging).