Triple Constraints – Friend or Foe?
By Denise DeCarlo, PMP

Many people have heard of the triple constraints, but do you really leverage them? The triple constraints are defined as Scope, Time and Resources, frequently diagrammed as a triangle with each side of the triangle containing one of the triple constraints. Scope consists of the work necessary to be performed to produce the results desired for the project. Time, of course, is the duration of time the project will consume to complete the defined scope. Resources include the money and effort expended on people (labor), services and products (for example the purchase of hardware, building materials, software, manufacturing components, etc.)

Leveraging the triple constraints by determining a distinct priority of the components, and managing the project to that prioritization can enhance the chances for project success.

Ask your project sponsor at the beginning of the project to prioritize the triple constraint components. Frequently they will say, “They are ALL important”. They are indeed all important but they should not be treated equally! Undoubtedly one of the triple constraints is more important relative to the others. For example; is the end date non-moveable due to other business commitments, regulatory considerations, or other mandatory stipulations? Or maybe the budget is fixed and your project can absolutely not exceed the approved budget level – or maybe scope is critical because you are attempting to obtain a competitive edge and your company wants to be the first in the marketplace with a given product. Find out from your sponsor which of the triple constraints is most important (and why), followed by the 2nd constraint, and then the last one.

As the project manager you will make decisions every single day based on the priorities of the triple constraint. If your sponsor has indicated to you that TIME (i.e. the end date) is the first priority, followed by resources (money) and then scope, you will do anything possible to achieve the planned end date by first reducing scope (because it’s the lowest priority of the three) and then by incurring additional resources to ultimately meet the desired end date.

This may seem “basic or obvious” but all too often we don’t have this conversation with the sponsor and the project manager either assumes a priority of the triple constraint based on their perception of the situation (which might be wrong) or worse yet – the project manager attempts to treat all three triple constraint components as being equal and fails miserably because it is literally impossible to do so. Changing one triple constraint almost always has an impact (positive or negative) on the other two triple constraints.

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