Keeping a project within budget and delivering quality within a specified time is often easier said than done. Terry Bartholomew explains how following the guidelines of the Project Management Triangle can help achieve this difficult task.

Projects by their nature do not always run to plan and in this current economic climate are coming under attack like never before due to a number of reasons including: 

• Broader marketplaces;
• Development and testing times are longer due to statutory compliance issues;
• Increasing numbers of stakeholders, providing
• further complexities to project agreements;
• Overstated benefits;
• Cost and time constraints.

At such times it is worth reviewing the parameters key to undertaking and delivering successful projects or programmes. These are more commonly known as:

• Cost;
• Scope (Quality) and;
• Time (Schedule).

Together generally referred to as the Project Management Triangle.

It is widely held thinking that the key to successful Project Management is keeping these three issues synchronized, as it is felt that one side of the triangle cannot be changed without diversely affecting the others, therefore requiring all to be kept under constant review and in check. Dealing firstly with Scope, in the construction sphere, the handover of completed projects should bring about no surprises as to the quality/scope being achieved, and at the outset of a project quality/scope needs to be specifically defined to ensure that end results (benefits) are identified.

The project manager must not allow quality drivers to be compromised by cost or time issues (for example overspends or delays), such that, to bring cost and time back under control, quality is compromised. Costs must be kept under review throughout the project life cycle from initial cost estimate stage through to post completion project review and at subsequent cost estimate stages, as there is often very little information available on which to base budget decisions, assumptions need to be made which must be turned into later decisions.

It is essential we ensure that at all stages of cost estimate/review the stakeholders are fully aware of the content of the estimate and crucially what is excluded, together with the sub-division of costs and risks.

The Time required to produce a project outcome must be properly estimated and include an assessment of the accumulative effects of each work task as it is rolled up into a final overall estimate of time. The project manager's skills need to ensure that critical path analysis is applied to key activities to ensure:

• Prioritisation;
• Identify dependency between tasks;
• Forward and long stop planning etcetera.

In summary, always seek to keep the Project Management Triangle in mind when reviewing a project, make sure that you adequately identify expectations and turn assumptions into decisions, being clear about quality/scope right from the outset. Be realistic with cost estimates at both project review and project life cycle stages and provide adequate time resource and scheduling to projects ensuring that quality and cost parameters can be achieved.

For further information contact:

Terry Bartholomew (London office)

T: 020 7940 3200 E: tbartholomew@calfordseaden.co.uk