By Laura Bamberg – Global Sales Administrator

Project managers have always dealt with triple factors in the success of their projects – time, budget and scope. Known as the “triple constraints,” these are the mainstays of planning. But I wonder: in focusing more on these three things, are project managers losing sight of other important constraints on their plans? Thomas Cutting, in The PMBOK and the Competing Project Constraints, states that the three additional constraints of quality, resources and risk are equally important. The superiority of your resources and quality, and the lowest risk possible, are obviously what project managers want to create. Cutting also wrote that he has an issue with removing the triangle of the triple constraint. “My fear is that it opens the door for management to defy the simple logic that if they increase scope, schedule or budget, one or both of the other legs have to adjust,” he says. In the fourth edition of the PMBOK Guide, the triangle is changing to a hexagonal model.  I went to Cindy Zingarello, a project manager at Steelray Software, for her take on this change.

“I have not read the changes to the PMBOK Guide released in the Fourth Edition. But I have heard the chatter that PMI killed the iron triangle, also known as the triple constraint,” she said. “What project managers know is that each side of the triangle is dependent on the other, and quality has taken up residence in the middle. It’s simple but true.” Zingarello believes that this is a hard tool to give up, effectively illustrating to stakeholders why they can’t change one without affecting the others.

“It can be argued that scope, quality, schedule, budget and resources, each given a side in the new polygon, are already covered under the constraints of time, scope and cost,” she opined. “As Tom Cutting states, all project managers would love the money-is-no-object approach, or to have every resource available to you when you need them, but it doesn’t happen. As with any constraint, you make adjustments to time, cost and scope as necessary.”

Zingarello also stated that she is studying PMI’s rationale for the changes, and although she’s not entirely convinced the triple constraint will ever die, she does feel that PMI made a bold move.

On that note, we would like to turn the discussion over to you and ask what your thoughts are on this topic. Feel free to comment below and join the conversation.