Grappling with constraints of Project Management

managers, of course with fulfilment of project stakeholder expectations.
A fortnight ago the Business Herald reported that the Zimbabwe Green Fuel’s Chisumbanje Ethanol Project is nearing completion, well in advance of the anticipated time frame. Construction of the plant took just about 14months, which is a record for a plant of this magnitude – usually it takes three years. Construction of the project started in March 2010 and the plant is expected to start operating by April 2011. The ethanol project report drew a lot of interest from project management practitioners who were keen to learn the critical success factors of the project.
Without giving any statistics PMIZ member Mr Mathias Issa who is one of the project managers at the plant admitted in my brief interview with him last week that they are grappling with control of costs and the scope of the project despite the anticipated early finish.
In last week’s article we explored the first four of the five project critical success factors (Project Planning, Stakeholder Buy-in, Executive Support and Formal Standards) and in this week’s article we discuss the fifth factor (Controlled Scope, Time and Cost) popularly known as the Triple Constraint of Project Management. The Chisumbanje Ethanol project is a good case study to analyse the triple constraints.
The three project elements of scope, time and cost form the cornerstones of the triangle of project value (quality).
All three elements are of equal importance to project success and to the project manager.
Project managers typically try to balance the three when meeting project objectives, but they may make trade-offs among the three during project implementation in order to meet objectives and satisfy stakeholders.
Managing the triple constraint involves making trade-offs between scope, time and cost goals for a project. For example, you might need to increase the budget for a project to meet scope and time goals. Alternatively, you might have to reduce the scope of a project to meet time and cost goals. Because projects involve uncertainty and limited resources, it is rare to complete many projects according to the exact scope, time and cost plans originally predicted.
Experienced project managers know that one must decide which aspect of the triple constraints is most important. If time is most important, you must often change the initial scope and/or cost goals to meet the schedule.
If scope goals are most important, you may need to adjust time and /or cost goals.
Lastly, if cost goals are most important, you may need to adjust scope and/or time goals to remain within the project budget. These are the basic iron laws regarding the interdependence among these three factors.
It must be noted that the typical project manager must keep his focus on meeting the project key stakeholders’ needs, as he or she attempts to adjust the scope, time and cost in response to the uncertainties bombarding the project at the implementation stage.
Scope Control
The Scope Control process involves monitoring the status of both the project and the product scope, monitoring changes to the project and product scope, and monitoring work results to ensure that they match expected outcomes.
Unapproved or undocumented changes that sometimes make their way into the project are referred to as scope creep.
How often have you overheard a stakeholder speaking directly with a project team member asking them to make “this one little change that doesn’t impact anybody . . . really, no one will notice.”
Make certain your project team members are well versed in the change control process and insist that they inform you of shenanigans like this. Scope creep can kill an otherwise viable project.
Little changes add up and eventually impact budget, schedule, and quality.
Schedule (Time) Control
Schedule changes might be potential hot buttons with certain stakeholders and can burn you if you do not handle them correctly. No one likes to hear that the project is going to take longer than originally planned. Even the seemingly invisible stakeholders, like, for example, street kids could see that there was a delayed opening of the Joina Centre skyscraper, in the Harare Central Business District. This does not mean that schedule changes must not be done, however a project manager should not withhold this information, but always report the truth.
If you have been keeping your stakeholders abreast of project status, they should already know that the potential for schedule changes exists. Nevertheless, be prepared to justify the reason for the schedule change or start dusting off your CV – maybe both, depending on the sponsor.
Cost Control
The Cost Control process monitors the project budget and manages changes to the cost baseline. It is concerned with monitoring project costs to prevent unauthorised or incorrect costs from being included in the cost baseline.
All budget changes should be agreed to and approved by the project sponsor where applicable (the criteria for approvals should be outlined in the change control system documentation).
Stakeholders should also be made aware of budget changes as this might affect the final project products and the completion date of the project.
Putting it all together
The basic rule to successful triple constraint management is simply to track the three elements.
The contemporary project manager must then be able to integrate a project’s scope, schedule, and cost components into a single baseline that enables project managers to more easily report project progress, define project problems, implement corrective actions, and forecast project results.
This integrated approach is called Earned Value Management (EVM). Future articles will discuss project performance measurement analysis strategy.
l Robert Taruwona is the President of PMIZ
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