Providers of project management services have always used the triple constraints of time, cost and scope as a straightforward framework for planning, monitoring and evaluating projects. Put simply, managing projects involves balancing time, cost and scope.
If you want it fast, you may have to spend more (cost) or reduce your expectations (scope). A massive project with a lot of moving parts (scope) requires you to increase the budget (cost) or lengthen the project timeline (time); you may even have to do both.
Today, these three constraints have expanded to include quality, benefits and risk. In this article, however, the discussion is limited to the original time, cost and scope constraints.
Time
Time is the desired project timeline. Does the stadium have to be finished in one year? Should the tower be up in three years?
Every client wants their project completed on time as their plans depend on it. Lease contracts, for instance, may be contingent upon a shopping mall being finished and operational by a specific date.
Challenges in Time Management
Plans change, and project timelines may require adjustment because of the following reasons:
- Scope changes: It’s back to the drawing board if a client wants two additional floors added to their high-rise. Frequent changes in project scope mean plans have to be revisited and adjusted. Execution of tasks may also be delayed.
- Resource availability: If the project requires two cranes and one needs repairs, it can cause schedule slippage. The unavailability of crucial resources (skills and materials) can cause delays.
- Estimation errors: Delays are inevitable if the schedule is based on wrong assumptions. If the time it took to cure concrete is twice as long as the estimate, that would push the project to end beyond the estimated completion date.
Strategies for Effective Time Management
You must be strategic to ensure timely project completion.
- Detailed planning: Break down a project into individual activities and estimate the duration of each task. Plot the tasks on a Gantt Chart to estimate how long the entire project will take and which tasks are key (critical) to completing the project on time.
- Prioritisation: Prioritise the tasks on the critical path. Any delays in critical tasks mean delays in project completion.
- Regular monitoring: Review project progress regularly to see which tasks are in danger of causing delays to the project.
- Schedule compression: If necessary, apply fast tracking or crashing. Fast-tracking is concurrently instead of sequentially working on tasks, while crashing is adding resources to the project to save time.
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Cost
Clients have a set project budget, and no client relishes spending over their budget. A lack of funds can make a project grind to a halt, and a higher cost can make a project unprofitable.
Challenges in Cost Management
Why do projects become more expensive than expected? Below are a few of the reasons why projects may exceed their cost constraints:
- Incorrect estimation: If cost estimates are based on inaccurate information, the project may exceed its budget.
- Scope creep: Design or project scope changes can lead to higher costs. For instance, the project cost may increase if the project suddenly calls for forced circulation instead of thermosiphon solar heating systems.
- Price increase: If the cost of materials or labour increases while the project is ongoing, the project will become more expensive.
It can also be challenging to defend the optimal project budget to clients. You must provide a breakdown of costs and conduct client consultations to align client expectations with actual expenses.
Strategies for Effective Cost Management
The following are strategies that can help manage project costs and ensure a project does not exceed its cost limits:
- Accurate estimations: The correct budget stems from accurate estimations. You may break up your project into individual activities, allot resources to each, and then estimate the cost for these resources. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) outlines the various cost estimation methods you can use.
- Scope management: As mentioned earlier, scope creep can increase project cost. Therefore, it is crucial that you strictly manage the project’s scope, ensuring that any scope changes are accounted for, time- and cost-wise.
- Cost tracking, reporting and monitoring: Costs are easier to balance and manage the earlier you learn about potential problems. Therefore, regular cost reviews are crucial to keeping any project within budget.
- Contingency planning: Maintain budget flexibility by providing for a contingency fund during project planning. This strategy requires a detailed risk assessment beforehand; you can only provide for risks you have identified.
Scope
Project scope represents the vision – i.e., what the client wishes to accomplish. In practical terms, it outlines project deliverables that everyone involved can tick off of a list when attained.
Project scope negatively impacts cost and time. After all, the bigger the project scope, the bigger the cost and the more time it requires. Likewise, reducing the budget or shortening the project timeline may require reducing the project scale.
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Challenges in Scope Management
Controlling project scope can be challenging because of the following:
- Changing requirements: The client may realise they want a different configuration while the project is ongoing.
- Resource unavailability: If the contractor with expertise in dome construction becomes unavailable and no other contractor can take their place immediately, you may have to consider changing the project’s design.
- Miscommunication: Changes must be made if the client and contractor are not on the same page regarding project scope.
Strategies for Effective Scope Management
How can you keep the project scope within its limits and prevent scope creep that could increase your cost or cause project delays? Here are a few strategies:
- Rigorous consultation: Discuss the client’s vision many times. Operationalise how it will be accomplished through numerous client consultations. Gather all necessary information before deciding on a final project scope. It’s best to spend more time planning the scope than to change it continuously while the project is ongoing.
- Clear documentation: Document and record the details of every consultation about scope, and make sure each document has been acknowledged and signed by everyone involved.
- Regular reviews: Review the scope regularly. This will let you catch scope creep before it becomes unmanageable.
- Standard operating procedures: You must have standard operating procedures for scope changes. This ensures every scope addition can be accounted for and appropriately balanced by other adjustments (e.g., cost and time adjustments).
Manage Time, Cost and Scope for Project Success
A successful project finishes according to scope on time and within budget. However, managing these constraints (including the other three factors of quality, benefits and risks) requires a project manager’s delicate balancing act.
