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Software Project Planning - The Project Triangle
| A product is produced in a given schedule, for a given budget, and has a resulting customer perceived quality. To create the product, the Project converts resources into the product. Resources include such things as Time, Money, and People. To ensure success, project expectations must be managed.
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Improving one corner of the triangle comes at the expense of the other two corners.
This gives rise to Forbe's Law:
Good, Fast, Cheap - Pick One. |
| Resources are divided across Quality, Schedule, and Budget. Quality can take two forms: a) presence of features, and b) absence of defects. The Project stakeholders have expectations about quality, schedule, and budget.
Remember - the customer wants it NOW, wants it CHEAP, and wants it PERFECT!
The Expectations Matrix forces recognition of the fact that the Project Triangle has a fixed area = total resources. Therefore, moving one corner of the triangle forces the others to move as well - that, or add more resources (which does not always work).
Rules for the Expectations Matrix:
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Only one X in a column.
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Only one X in a row.
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