“As a project manager, you want to have control over what you’re promising to deliver.   The worst case is when there are fixed timescales, development effort and deliverables – for the typical project, that’s a ‘car crash’ waiting to happen.”

But a project manager doesn’t have to be responsible for everything. “They will be responsible for the timescales,” Naylor (Simon Naylor, head of consumer and industrial project management with Cambridge Consultants,) pointed out, “and the deliverables. But, ideally, they will have a ‘partner in crime’ – the technical authority or lead – who will be responsible for the technical stuff.”

Project management triangle

Naylor said there are three elements to project management and these can be considered as a triangle. “They are cost, deliverables and timescales,” he explained. “You can’t have all three; there has to be room for maneuver. Quality is a further issue, particularly if you’re developing a medical device. Then, the area of the triangle will become larger. You have to be able to trade these elements off against each other; if they’re fixed, then that’s a big risk.”

Project managers have to perform this trade-off constantly, Naylor continued. “If not, then it will be hard to deliver the project. But the priority at any point depends what’s driving the stakeholders. You might need to show something at an exhibition; that’s a fixed date, so development effort or functionality will need to be flexible. Remember that things change and the project will need continual discussion.” – Graham Pitcher, excerpted from his article, “How the project manager and their team can get to where they want to be” for  Eureka Magazine, click here to read the article in its entirety.

Well said!   PMO Advisory offers courses throughout the year designed for project professionals interested in Portfolio (PfMP), Program (PgMP), Project (PMP & CAPM) Risk (PMI-RMP) Management, and Agile (PMI-ACP) certifications.