Triple Constraints

Project management is one of the necessary aspects in the field of business. This is a wide field that requires the application of expertise and great knowledge of the manager. It involves planning, organizing and managing resources for a better production in any company or organization. Proper project management will assure the company success in the completion of the specific projects, their goals and objectives. A project is defined as a temporary undertaking that defines the beginning, the body or continuity and the end of a program as regards to a particular idea or activity. The major challenge in the field of managing projects is the level of the fulfilment of the necessary goals and objectives within the time line that is given.  Triple constraints involve the three aspects that are of particular concern in the management of a project. They are the time line, the scope and the cost of bringing out success in a project. It involves the balance of the projects scope of operation, time available and the total cost that is to be incurred at the end of the project (Heldman  & Mangano 2009, pp. 52-55).

In other words, triple constraints is sometimes referred to as Dempster's triangle. One of the sides of the triangle or the corners represents the scope, time and the cost of production of the project. This is a tool that has been used over many projects, and has resulted in the fulfilment of objectives and goals of carrying out project management. At the process of planning the project, these three terms have to be clearly defined as they will be the driving force towards the attainment of the objectives and goals of the project. They are referred to as constraints because they are critical yet they have to be attained for the success of any project that is to be carried out. Moreover, failure to accomplish the three constraints is a clear indication of failure in the management of the project, and thus the goals and objectives have not been met in any way possible (Letavec 2006, pp. 12). The other elements that are of central concern are the requirements and the schedule to be adhered to at the process of carrying out a project. One is expected to make sure that he is able to meet all the requirements in order to arrive at the desired results in any project. For any project to succeed, there are always necessities that have to be met before the project becomes successful. These necessities may involve the resources, man power or expertise and the skill to attain the set objectives. Moreover, the other aspect that has to be considered is the schedule to be followed. This involves the project procedures and pathways that will lead to the desired destiny in any project. The destiny is the goals and objectives that have been set before the start of the project. It is therefore quite clear that for the success of any project, the management team have to concentrate on the management of the constraints besides the necessities and schedules of the project.

Constrains (1000words)

The three constraints are specifically the scope, time and the cost that are to be involved at the process of attaining the goals of a project. Different projects are constraint in different ways; however, the triple constraints of a project are the core effects that have great influence on the nature and the outcome of the project.

Scope refers to the extent to which the project will assume before it gets accomplished.  It entails the specific work that has to be covered with an aim of delivering the product, the service or the result that bears particular results. Moreover, scope refers to the characteristics that exemplify project's product or outcome, service that is entailed and the resultant product that is attained. Project scope is more of what is physically done upon the project. It digs into the methodologies and procedures that will result in the success of the project. It majors on the mentioning or it lays much emphasis on the mention of the requirements that have to be defined. Scope creep management is another feature that is related to the scope of a project, and which is core in the fulfilment of the project. Projects are supposed to meet strict constraints of time yet with tighter strain on the resources. Any change that affects the scope will finally result in the negative effect on the results of the project. The creep of the scope normally results in what is called cost overrun. The project should have what we call the change management. This is for the management of any change that may have its effects on the nature of the project after the goals and objectives have been formulated. These changes are a subject to the coming up of other features that had not been part of the plan. This includes ideas as scope creep. It specifically refers to the incremental expansion that occurs upon the scope of the project (Cioffi 2002, pp. 45-48). This increment introduces other aspects in the project that had not been part of the project plan. To separate the management of the scope creep, there are specifically two ways to do so. One is the business scope creep and the other is the features scope creep. The people who created the changes are the ones who are subject to the nature on the creep the results at the end of the project.

The scope creep management occurs when there are decisions that are made to have their effect on the needs and the requirements of the project. They are designed with reference to the nature and type of the project. If poor definition of the requirements occurs during the formulation of the project, business scope creep changes may occur. The scope management plan is a communication document used at the process of carrying out the project. It is a clear indication of how the project will be defined, managed, controlled all through, examined for verification and finally how the project and its resultant effects will be conveyed to the stakeholders or the customers. It also looks into the aspect of the work that is done before the project attains to its set objectives and goals. The change management system determines what is in and out of the scope of the management project, with the help of the documents of the project. Moreover, the scope of the project is a tool that can be used in the establishment of the level of work that is getting done at the pursuit of the project. It is therefore one of the procedures that have to be adhered to by managers in the management of the projects (Lock 2007, pp. 45).

Time is a subject of particular importance in carrying out projects. There is nothing in the world that can be done without referring to the time available before its resultant effects. Anticipations and aims of any endeavour are subject to the available time for the results to be realised. Time is therefore very paramount in the designing and accomplishment of a project. If there is great interdependency between tasks in a project, it is very critical to consider the speed in which the project is getting done.

In order to realise the nature are fruitfulness of any particular project, time has to be allowed. With time, the project will yield the desired outcomes as long as the right methods and procedures have all been met. The success of a project will not depend on then nature of materials and expertise that has been involved alone, it will examine all these depending on the period of time that has been allowed.  Finally, time is core to the nature of the quality that is required of any project in any business. Before one establishes a project, he has to pay more interest on the available time as this determines the environmental changes that normally occur in the world of global business (Graham 2006, pp. 57).

Cost refers to the total sum of the material, financial and time needs that a project will be in need of in order to succeed. Before any project is projected, the total costs to be incurred must be formulated. This is of significant importance in the determination of the objectives of the project. Cost management involves the idea of controlling the expenses within an organization. It is therefore a tool that can be used to monitor and report all the expenses that are incurred at the process of carrying out a project. This is for an official use as it involves the management of the finance, a core item in the fulfilment of the project goals and objectives. It is a tool that is used to track all the costs involved in the entire work of the project. The identification of the costs is the idea of the cost manager. He is the individual who is behind any transaction in the project. Cost management therefore helps to ensure that all the expenses in the project are approved before any purchasing is done. It assists in monitoring the cases of over-expenditure in the company. Moreover, cost management is a key tool in making sure that the overall financial plans of the project are up to date.

Importance of managing cost (800 words)

Cost management is a key feature in the success of any business project. The cost of a project entails the main requirements that a project cannot do without. There are various definitions that have been used in the definition of cost management. They range from those of general management to the management of the specific elements that make up a financial establishment in a company. As an introductory matter, cost accounting is a critical approach that has to be done with much keenness and attention. It ought not to fail at all hence it should be handled with much concern since it is the heart of meeting the objectives of any project, either making or not making any profit (Wirick 2009, pp. 56-70).

Cost management refers to the act of monitoring the total income and expenditure of a project right from its start to the end of a given time limit. It involves the idea of making sure that all the transactions, be it finances or otherwise are spent and achieved procedurally and at the right amounts. Managing costs in a project is one of the tasking undertakings yet very crucial. There are various considerations that have to be attained before a project is given a start. One of them is a proper machinery to handle the costs of the project starting from the capital that was involved at the start of the project, the continued income and expenditure of the process and the end product of the project when all the objectives and goals have been achieved and the project considered successful. The management of the costs also involves the estimation of the procedures and outcomes of the project before it is started. Project cost management is a key feature in the management of the expenses of the company.

Expenses are made at the influence of the needs or requirements that are of importance at some particular time in the management of the project. It is therefore used in the management of the costs of expenses that are to be incurred by the project. Expenses have to be adequately budgeted for before they are incurred. It is the duty of the cost manager to make sure that all the costs are therefore budgeted for (Kerzner 2010, pp. 89).

Management of the costs is important in the establishment and control of the total cost of the project. This takes place at the point of projecting the incurrence that is to be met at the process of carrying out the project. This is beneficial when it comes ensuring that the total costs of the project are achievable before starting the project itself. As a matter of fact, when this is done, the project will thereby continue without any other disturbance.

Cost management is crucial in the identification of each and every cost within a project. It is presumed that the project will be successful if all the areas of cost are fulfilled and well managed. When all the cost areas are identified, it will be easy for the manager to finance and monitor their progress. Many projects have failed because of the failure to identify and take note of all the cost areas. This failure will always result in low quality project results. For instance, when the cost of offering security to project is not identified in advance, the project will probably fail when insecurity entangles it.

Purchasing is a daily aspect that exemplifies an active and fruitful project. When purchasing is not appropriately done, mismanagement of funds is likely to occur. Cost management is therefore important in making sure that all the expenses are planned for and are done appropriately. These expenses have to be approved by the finance department before any purchasing is done. Failure to approve the expenses will result in mismanagement of funds are thereby may thwart the entire goals and objectives of the project. The approval of the invoices and other business documents are covered under this concept of management. At some instances, there is what we call the extraordinary expenses. These are the expenses that are incurred or come up as a result of emergencies in the company. They are normally very rare yet when they occur; they always require a prepared mindset to handle it. This is the responsibility of the cost manager. Special approvals should be therefore done on behave of these expenses (Wagner 2009, pp. 132-134).

Finally, it is very important that all the phases in the project are considered. The many phases that may be in a project are critical to the overall success that the project will yield to the company. It is yet again essential to make sure that all the costs of the project are first identified, monitored and finally controlled by the project manager. Moreover, when the cost of s project is well managed, the overall work of carrying out managerial duties over the project becomes easy. This is because of the fact that financial management is directly related to the management of the total costs of production and activity in a project.

Requirements management (800 words)

It is a fact in business that nothing comes without involving managerial ideas. Every business or project has to involve a number of aspects that will give it life. Requirements are therefore some of the basic and fundamental aspects in the daily running of a project.

Management of the requirements involve the act of analyzing, tracing, making priorities and making agreements as regards to the needed requirements then finally taking control of the change and communicating the outcomes to the appropriate clients and the stakeholders. Management of requirements is very fundamental to the establishment of any project as it is done in many businesses. This act is a continuous process that takes place throughout the life of the project. It is a clear indication of the nature in which the outcome of the project should look like at the end of the entire time of the accomplishment of the project. The management of the requirements is one of the most critical aspects in project planning. It is a clear reflection of the resultant effect that is expected of a project. Its is a fact that before you get to do something, it is essential that you get in touch with what id going to happen at the end of the activity. The management of the requirements is a tool that guides you to realise the outcome of the project before you begin doing it, or rather at the process of planning for it (Heldman 2005, pp. 23).

Every activity that is new together with a new product, every project that is new in a place, every product that is new is always a creation of a particular need. This is a simple explanation of the requirement need. The end product of any undertaking should be a clear replica of the needed product.

Customer satisfaction is essential to any business in the world. This is the driving force behind any new feature that erupts in the market. When designing out a project, it is usually essential that the requests of the customer are first met before making other considerations. Clients will always complain of inadequacy in the level of the quality of the products that they are in need of. This management therefore is a key feature in making sure that all the needs are provided when carrying out the project.

The failures that normally occur are related to the nature of the management of the requirements of the project. This is due to the failure of the managers to allocate appropriate and enough resources towards the management of the project. Another feature that has resulted to these failures is the failures by the managers to allocate time to these projects. As a result of the presence of a firm and working requirements management organ in a project, these failures are not going to occur again. Good requirements management will assist to curb these problems. It is therefore very necessary to manage requirements in a project.

There are other purposes that result from a proper management of requirements in a project. It helps to ensure that the company or any other organisation organises its documents, verifies them and in order to meet the varied expectations of the customers in the market. It is a tool that can be used to elicit the objectives and constraints that characterize an organisation. One of its characteristics is the ability to support the planning and the integration of the requirements besides organisational changes that may affect the running of the organisation or the project (Dobson 2010, pp. 58-60).

Finally, requirements management is a tool that is used to improve communication between the members of the project team and the stakeholders. It also involves the adjustment requirements that are supposed to be done at the course of the project. The nature of communication will be to specify the nature of changes in the requirements. This is because of the fact that one requirement shouldn't overshadow those of another. It is therefore critical that constant communication is practised among all the members of the project. Moreover, one has to accurately define what he or she wants. The management of the requirements in a project helps one to achieve this objective. It is a guide that takes one to understand well the needs of the project that every one can agree. This is of great assistance to ensure that misunderstandings are first met before the final product of the project is reached and the product is delivered to the customer.

Schedule management (800 words)

Among the critical considerations in the handling of projects is the schedule. It is the most courier concept of a project that has to be considered for the betterment of the entire time of the project. It specifically touches on the role of the individual activities to be practised and the time span in which they are supposed to be accomplished. The schedule itself is the blue print of the entire project work. It is a representation of the deliverables that have to be completed for the project to be delivered on time.

There are various templates that can be used to represent the scheduling used by many project designers and executors. One of the common one is the gantt chart. It is common because of its simplicity in the handling of the necessary ideas that have to be done within the project. Other complicated charts make use of the Microsoft projects hence they may be hard to make use of them (Sudhakar 2006, pp. 98).

The designing of a project schedule requires the attention of the manager. This is typical to the work break down structure that has to be designed in advance. This is to estimate the various tasks and list them according to the specific periods of time and the priorities beforehand. As far as the project is to be made successful, there has to be a schedule. A program of activities has to be formulated in order to gather for the services that have to be accomplished. Industries are supposed to adhere to the methodologies that make use of the project schedules. A schedule is very critical to a firm and well-established development of a project in any business.

Time is a key element in the accomplishment of any activity. Businesses normally make sure that they have adhered to the requirements of time. It is therefore among their daily strategies to accomplish the available activities within the time frame that has been designed for it. This is similar to project work. First and foremost, a schedule represents or rather denotes all the available activities that have to be taken into consideration in handling any aspect of a project. It represents a list of activities. It is therefore necessary in order to know all the activities that have to be done before the accomplishment of the project. Apart from making the list of all the activities that have to be done, the schedule is a clear indication that can be used to differentiate the predecessor and the successor tasks. These refer to the tasks that have to be completed first and those that have to follow respectively (Dobson 2004, pp. 87-90).

Preparedness is a key feature in scheduling. This is an idea where the managers of the project have to be prepared to handle all the situations that will come with the project. This will therefore mean that the resources will have to be collected before the start of the project.

There are challenges that are always expected to be encountered when working on the project. Some will be thought to be emergencies yet others have to occur. When a schedule is drawn, it is possible to have these challenges be put under consideration in order to be well managed. This is when it gets to the particular time for that challenge to occur. The schedule will therefore be a leeway to making sure that these challenges are provided with their remedies before their occurrence. Moreover, the individuals who are dealing with the problem will thus be given a chance to express their skill in the management of challenges and emergencies in project work (Phillips 2010, pp. 56).

The management of schedule solutions further shortens managing and controlling schedules with enhanced analysis and ocular tools, with the intention that the project managers can centre on deliverables and fritter less time manoeuvring the project schedule. Alike to the spelling superintendent in Microsoft Word, possible concerns and inefficiencies in the schedule are visually recognized by red and green wavy underlines. Project managers can use the enhanced Task Inspector to detect and conquer branded issues. Multi-Level Undo and Change Highlighting are now accessible in the Web-based schedule to facilitate managers sculpt schedule changes, online or else from the desktop, with negligible risk and to swiftly see all precious tasks.

From the above explanations of then three constraints, I agree with the statement that the most part of the project manager's job is in the management of the triple constraints of cost, requirements and the schedule. These constraints are closely related and no one can exist on its own. Moreover, when all the three organs are managed in a business of when carrying out a project, there is no other responsibility that will remain.

Linkages, tradeoffs and relationships (600 words)

The management of a project covers a variance of facets of tasks within a given period of time. The main intention of the project is to cover the given task within the available time and achieve the goals and objectives of the project yet under several constraints.  The three constraints have the potential to either ruin or promote the projects that have been planned to be done (Cleland 2010, pp. 78-81).

The three constraints of management of a project are related in one way or the other, they are linked together and that they exhibit similarities in their trade offs. The three constraints form a triangle in which they derive their relatedness. One part of the triangle cannot be changed without having effects on the other side of it. This is the reason behind the fact that they form a process that is continuous in nature. The time constraint deals with the time that is available in order to have a project accomplished. For time to be well acquitting to the manager, he or she should have a schedule. This shows that the schedule and time management cannot be separated at any instance. A schedule is a pathway in achieving the project within the specified period of time. A time frame will therefore be efficient when dealing with the schedule to be followed. A total time should be figured out before designing a plan that will oversee the other sub-projects that will make up the entire project plan. The project will automatically have many parts that are linked together. Time is thereby needed for these specific parts of the project.

The three constraints will always be having a completion with one another. This is the reason why we are saying that one part of it cannot operate without the presence of the other. For instance, if the managerial team takes a decision to enlarge the scope of the project, there will be an enlargement in the time span required to have the project complete as well as the cost of production of the project. It the timeframe is tightened, this means that the scope of the project should be reduced or rather shortened to fit in the available time. If the team decides to tighten the budget of the project, the resultant effects will be an increase in the scope of the time and a subsequent reduction in the scope of the project. (Lock 2007, pp. 78)

The scope of the project is in other words related to the available time and the cost that is to be incurred by the project. The scope covers the entire goals of the project and the end product that should be pleasing. The amount of time that the team injects into the project is related o the nature of the quality that will be obtained. Some projects are known to take a larger period of time while others are usual to take a small period. This means that a lot of money or resources will be involved in a long span project than in a short term project.

In conclusion, the three constraints of project management are essential before carrying out any project. They are related and they also form a process that if well taken care of, will yield a perfect project. The trade offs within the constraints reflects of the relatedness that the constraints assumes in order to yield the desired result of the project. Great emphasis should be laid on the three constraints in order to have the entire work done and the desired project acquired.