What is the Project Management Triangle? | MVP Match Blog

Also called the golden triangle, a project management triangle refers to balancing the three constraints of a project (scope, time, and cost) to maintain high quality. If one constraint changes, the others must realistically change as well.

For example, if your project schedule is shortened, the project scope needs to decrease, or the project cost needs to increase to produce a good final product.

Set your project up for success by learning about the project management triangle. Understanding this business philosophy will increase the quality of the project.

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3 Elements of the Project Management Triangle

What are the 3 parts of the project management triangle? The 3 parts (or constraints) of the project management triangle are scope, time, and cost.

• Scope refers to all the tasks and deliverables that must be completed to finish the final product. Remember: the project’s scope may grow, but it seldom shrinks. The scope of a project may increase due to unclear priorities, stakeholder miscommunication, poor time management, new feature requests, or lack of planning for change requests.

• Time (or schedule) refers to the amount of time to complete the whole project or individual milestones within a project. Deadlines may be movable or non-negotiable. Time constraints may tighten due to new team members joining, unclear delivery dates, or unforeseen cost constraints.

• Cost (or budget) refers to how much money is needed to finish a successful project. The budget can include labor, material supplies, equipment costs such as computers, workspace rent, etc. The project budget may decrease due to timeframe changes, scope constraints, poor risk management, or unrealistic expectations set early on.

Used since at least the 1950s, the point of the triangle is that there are tradeoffs. If one constraint changes, the other constraints also have to adjust.

Project Management Triangle Benefits

Using and understanding the project management triangle comes with the following benefits:

• It visualizes how altering one component impacts the others. Changing the scope, for example, would necessitate a budget increase or a timeline extension (or both). Simply knowing this can increase your chances for success.

• It improves customer communication. The simple yet intuitive idea of the 3 constraints should benefit communication with clients. If a stakeholder or customer requests a constraint change, such as new functionality (increasing scope), you can use the triangle to explain how that change will impact the project in other ways.

• It spells out your priorities so everyone’s on the same page. The triangle helps you figure out if your project needs a looser deadline, a larger budget, or different deliverables — based on the other constraints that are immovable.

• It reduces the risk of failure or a low-quality product. When a project constraint changes, understanding the project management triangle helps you moderate stakeholder expectations and provides a framework for discussing the ripple effects on time and budget.

• It makes change easier to predict. The project management triangle spells out how one change leads to other required changes in a project. If you can expect future changes, they won’t take you by surprise and waste as much time and money.

4 Strategies to Manage

You need to balance the 3 constraints of the project management triangle, and below are the best strategies to do just that:

• Ask questions. Communicate openly and frequently with the stakeholders so you know what about the project is changeable or immovable. Ask them which constraints (scope, time, or budget) are the highest priority, and set their expectations about balancing these constraints.

• Identify risks. A good project manager should work to prevent scope creep, going over budget, or blowing the deadline. If you identify potential risks early on, you can make a plan to mitigate those risks.

• Be ready for change. Change is inevitable, whether it is a budget cut or a shrinking of your team, or a late customer request. Before the project starts, create a change management plan. Establish how the changes will be decided on and implemented, who has the authority to request changes, who needs to be informed of the changes, etc.

• Choose the right methodology. Based on the 3 project constraints, you may manage your team with different project management methodologies. Strict constraints may benefit from a Waterfall methodology: one step after another. An Agile project management framework, or an Agile-based methodologylike Scrum or Lean, offers more flexibility.

Tools for Project Management

There are a lot of project management tools out there which help you balance the 3 constraints — time, cost, and scope:

• Gantt charts: This powerful project management tool visualizes timelines and dependencies to greatly improve your project team’s efficiency. Gantt charts are intuitive and free to use, just like a Kanban board. (Check out this free Gantt template.)

• Business communications: Business messaging software (such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Hangouts) is an effective way to streamline your team’s communication, increase transparency, and boost morale if used appropriately.

• Teamwork software: There are many team collaboration software out there, like Asana, Notion, Monday.com, Clickup, and Trello, which will make your team’s communication more efficient and clearer to track.

• Manager education: Research the best project manager courses to complete. With higher salaries and higher demand each year, new and experienced project managers should continue learning about real-timedecision-making, project execution, and keeping project planson budget if they intend to stay relevant.

FAQs

What are the four elements of the project management triangle?

The project management triangle has 3 constraints: scope, time, and cost. When perfectly balanced, these 3 elements result in the 4th element at the center of the golden triangle: quality.

What is the project management triangle called?

The project management triangle is also called the golden triangle, the triple constraint triangle, the iron triangle, or the project triangle.

Why is the project management triangle a key for project success?

This project management triangle is key to your project’s success because it visualizes the balance required between scope, time, and budget. Knowing that these 3 constraints need to be balanced sets realistic expectations and allows for better risk management.

What are the 4 phases of the project management life cycle?‎

The project management life cycle has 4 phases:

1. Initiation 

2. Planning (AKA buildup)

3. Execution (AKA implementation)

4. Closure (AKA closeout)

Some sources include a 5th phase: monitoring & controlling.

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