« A Checklist for a Good Facilitation
Processes, Projects, and Programs - OH My! »

Six Constraints: An Enhanced Model for Project Control - Time and Cost

April 6, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Cost Management, PRINCE2, Time Management

Six Constraints: An Enhanced Model for Project Control - Time and Cost (#2 in the series Six Constraints: An Enhanced Model for Project Control)
By Jay Siegelaub - MBA, PMP, PRINCE2

PRINCE2™ employs “tolerances” – its term for these six constraints – as key project controls. They are dimensions of the project for which ranges of acceptability are defined, which are monitored to identify or anticipate when a plan has entered “problematic” or “exception” territory. They are needed and used at all three planning levels of a project – the project as a whole, any one stage or phase of the project, and at the detail work package level.

The Six Constraints are:

  • Time
  • Cost
  • Scope
  • Quality
  • Benefits
  • Risk

This article discusses Time & Cost.

Time and Cost

These are considered the standard constraints. They are reflected in our estimates and presented as ranges (plus-or-minus). In PRINCE2™ terms, as long as we are operating (delivering our projects) inside that agreed range limit, we are considered on-target. Good project management practice requires us to provide ranges for these constraints – ranges representing the estimating uncertainties associated with a project’s particular circumstances. (PRINCE2™ separates these estimating uncertainties from funds set aside for specific purposes: a Change Budget – a fund to implement requests for change to scope or quality characteristics, or a Contingency Budget – funds to respond to previously defined risk contingencies.)

Classically time and cost are the first place the sponsors look (and for some sponsors, the only place) to see if a project is “in trouble” – ie, not meeting stakeholder expectations. This is probably because they are the most tangible measurements: we have a due date and a budget – what could be simpler? For many on the sponsor level the “scope” and “quality” of the project are harder to grasp – and measure. The assumption very often is: “Of course it will do what it’s supposed to. Isn’t that what we’re paying for? Make sure it works and get it done on time. I don’t care what it takes, as long as it comes in within budget and on time!” It becomes easier to disguise some missing features, or gloss over quality checking. Since the sponsors usually aren’t quite sure what the detail scope characteristics are, or what goes into “quality checking,” everyone is just as happy to see them ignored or minimized, in favor of time and cost.

In the classic model, Risk and Benefits constraints don’t even exist, so they are certainly not under consideration. We will soon see the importance of the four other factors that make up the six constraints.

Jay Siegelaub has over 30 years of professional experience delivering and supporting projects in information technology, insurance systems, banking, and nonprofit strategic planning, as well as in the pharmaceutical, financial service, consulting, and consumer products industries. As a recognized educator he has trained thousands of project managers over the past 23 years, including 13 years as the Project Management tutorial instructor for the Drug Information Association.

Jay’s recent responsibilities included leading the North American Change Management and Training practices for a UK-based management consulting firm, training corporate consulting professionals in project and program management, and supporting clients in managing the “people” issues of their business change initiatives. He has authored articles on training, project management and information technology for various publications, and often presents at conferences, including the PMI North American Congress (1999, and 2004 – 2007), ProjectWorld and ProjectSummit.

In addition to his PMP® certification, Jay has his MBA in Organization Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business, and is an accredited PRINCE2™ Practitioner, Instructor and Examiner. He has taught and consulted in PRINCE2™ in North America for 10 years (the first US-accredited PRINCE2™ instructor), and worked for the company (and with the authors) that wrote the PRINCE2™ Manual for the UK government.

He has provided Change Management and Project Management consulting and training (including PRINCE2) to companies such as Sun Microsystems, NATO, the United Nations Development Programme, Bechtel, IBM, Philip Morris, Credit Suisse, JPMorganChase and Diageo.

Jay also consults in Organizational and Professional Development.

Share this article:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • blogmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • TwitThis
  • Yahoo! Buzz

Related Articles

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 and is filed under Cost Management, PRINCE2, Time Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

No comments yet.

feel free to leave a comment

Comment Guidelines: Basic XHTML is allowed (a href, strong, em, code). All line breaks and paragraphs are automatically generated. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Email addresses will never be published. Keep it PG-13 people!

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

All fields marked with " * " are required.

Project Management Categories