How To Benefit From Iron Triangle Of Project Management

Project management is all about balance. Balancing the need to get things done on time to keep costs down while still delivering a product that meets or exceeds customer expectations. This balancing act is often represented by something called the Iron Triangle.

The Iron Triangle shows how three key factors – scope, schedule, and cost – are linked together and how any changes to one of these variables will affect the others. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the Iron Triangle and discuss how project managers can use it to their advantage.

The Iron Triangle Defined

The Iron Triangle is a simple concept that can be applied to any project. It’s made up of three sides, each representing one of the critical constraints to manage to deliver a successful project. These three sides are:

Scope
Schedule
Cost

The point of the Iron Triangle is to show that these three factors are interrelated, and any changes to one will impact the others. The project quality will suffer if any of the triangle points are moved without adjusting to the other points.

The Relationship Between Iron Triangle Points

How is each point on the triangle related? How do they move to keep projects on task? As a project manager, you should be familiar with juggling projects and deadlines, but knowing the points of the iron triangle and applying the method while working on your project, will ensure success and keep you constantly adjusting and moving to meet your goals.

Scope: The first point on the iron triangle is scope. This is what your project will entail – all of the features, functions, and deliverables that must be included for it to be considered complete. When scope is increased, schedule and cost must also increase to accommodate the additional work required to finish the job.

Schedule: The second point on the iron triangle is the schedule. This is when your project needs to be completed within a specific time frame to meet customer or stakeholder expectations. When the schedule is compressed or lengthened, the scope or cost must be reduced or extended to keep the project on track.

Cost: The third and final point on the iron triangle is cost. This represents the budget for your project and includes both direct costs (labor, materials) and indirect costs (overhead, management). The schedule or scope must be adjusted to keep the project within budget when the cost increases or decreases.

These three triangle points work together. When one point is moved, the other two must also be adjusted to keep the triangle in balance and the project on track.

Why Would You Implement The Iron Triangle?

Using the Iron Triangle helps simplify the project management process and breaks down a project into three constrained factors: scope, schedule, and cost. Any changes to one of these variables will impact the others. As a project manager, it’s your job to keep all three sides in balance and make adjustments to ensure a successful outcome.

Using the Iron Triangle is a valuable tool for project managers because it can assist when you need to:

Evaluate trade-offs

When you need to change one side of the triangle, the Iron Triangle can help you evaluate the trade-offs and decide how to proceed.
Make decisions: The Iron Triangle can be used as a decision-making tool to help you choose the best option for your project.

Communicate with stakeholders

The Iron Triangle is a visual way to communicate the constraints or opportunities of your project to stakeholders.

The Iron Triangle in Action

In theory, the Iron Triangle works, but seeing an example of how it might play out in a real-world project, can help you understand how to implement this process into your next project.

For this example, let’s say we’re working on a new website for a client. The project’s scope includes designing and developing a new homepage, creating five additional pages, and adding a blog. We’ve been given eight weeks to complete the project and allocated $15,000 for labor and materials. The contract has been written and signed, and the work has begun.

During the project, the client wants to add two more pages to the site. How does this request factor into the Iron Triangle? We could identify a few options with this change, but in this instance, it is a change to the scope throwing the other two corners out of wack.

We need to adjust the schedule or the cost to accommodate this change to realign. If we want to keep the project on schedule, we’ll need to reduce the scope by removing one of the other pages from the project – or we could increase the schedule timeline to accommodate the new page. However, we will also need an increase in budget to cover the additional work and resources required to complete the new pages.

Manage Your Iron Triangle Projects with Hive

As you can see from the above example, and time and time again, of the three constraints, it is much more critical to manage scope. This is because scope creep is very common within projects and can significantly impact the outcome if not kept in check. Of course, schedule and cost are also important, but changes to these constraints are usually easier to manage and recover from.

The best way to manage these triple constraints is by using a project management tool like Hive. Hive allows you to create tasks, assign them to team members, set deadlines, and track progress all in one place. This additional visibility in your project will help you identify when one of the constraints is starting to slip and take corrective action before it’s too late.

Hive also has a handy Gantt chart view that lets you visualize your project timeline and see where each task falls on the Iron Triangle. This is a great way to catch potential problems early and ensure your project stays on track.

If you’re not using a tool like Hive, you can still use the Iron Triangle to manage your project by creating a simple chart with the three points. Plot out each task on the chart and color code them according to which constraint they fall under. This will give you a quick visual of where your project stands and what tasks need to be given priority.

No matter how you choose to use it, the Iron Triangle is a valuable tool for any project manager. By understanding the relationship between scope, schedule, and cost – you can more effectively manage your projects and deliver successful results.