Project management triangle
key constraints or conflicting goals inherent in managing a project: cost or budget, scope of deliverables, and time of project completion
The project management triangle (called also the triple constraint, iron triangle and project triangle) is a model of the constraints of project management. While its origins are unclear, it has been used since at least the 1950s. It contends that:
The quality of work is constrained by the project's budget, deadlines and scope (features).
The project manager can trade between constraints.
Changes in one constraint necessitate changes in others to compensate or quality will suffer.
For example, a project can be completed faster by increasing budget or cutting scope. Similarly, increasing scope may require equivalent increases in budget and schedule. Cutting budget without adjusting schedule or scope will lead to lower quality.
"Good, fast, cheap. Choose two." as stated in the Common Law of Business Balance (often expressed as "You get what you pay for.") which is attributed to John Ruskin but without any evidence and similar statements are often used to encapsulate the triangle's constraints concisely.
“Project management triangle” enters the record as key constraints or conflicting goals inherent in managing a project: cost or budget, scope of deliverables, and time of project completion. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Project, management and triangle can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Project management triangle” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.