CHAPTER 2 The Triple Constraints: Time, Cost, and Performance

A project takes place inside an organization or system. Like many statements about a project—“a project ends,” for example—a characteristic that’s obvious on the face of it has consequences that are much less obvious.

An organization or system has nearly an infinite amount of useful, desirable work that could be done, but has limited and finite resources available with which to do that work. Choices must be made. Each choice consumes resources that could otherwise serve a different need.

Even though we’ve made the choices we (or someone) presumably think best, if we use our limited resources efficiently, we get to do more things. If we give you a spendable resource, such as cash, or a resource allocated over time, like a person, for your project, we can’t use the same resource to gain something else we want.

That’s why the first technique almost any manager learns is “the squeeze.” Budgets and schedules can normally take some degree of squeezing, and if the project can be accomplished with less, that’s good for the organization. (There are managers who seem never to learn any technique other than the squeeze, but that’s a different issue.)