Managing Project Trade-offs
Managing Project Trade-offs
By Michael Stanleigh
Dear Project Coach:
I am struggling with a project where I am told that I must work within the defined scope and budget. As well, I have a fixed number of resources and must meet all of the customer requirements. I thought all projects had “trade-offs” between these constraints.
It’s not that I don’t think I can meet all of these needs but you know what its like – if anything can go wrong, it will. What if I can’t meet my entire scope or work within the constraints of the time and budget. What if I can’t meet all of the customer requirements?
I guess I’m just worried about all of the “what ifs”. Do you think that my concerns are justified? Or is it that I’m just worried about the unknowns for no good reason? I really need your help and understanding so I can get on with managing this project.
I look forward to your advice,
Signed: Worried!
Dear Worried,
I have two approaches that you can take to ease your concerns:
- Conduct project risk management by completing a Risk Assessment on the project.
Conducting project risk management will provide you with the information you’ll need to anticipate what might prevent project success. Through this process you’ll identify how to reduce risk likelihood and how to manage risk(s) should it occur.
Project management skills require a sound understanding of project risk management. Anticipating risk and identifying the tasks necessary to reduce risk likelihood should always go into your project plan to ensure that you don’t overlook them and have a plan of action to prevent the likelihood that risk will occur. This is your contingency plan. While you always hope that you never have to use the contingency plan (sometimes referred to as a mitigation plan), if a risk occurs, at least you’ll be prepared for it.
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Manage project trade-offs
If a project risk occurs it’s very likely that you may need more project management resources such as money and/or resources and/or time to manage it. The risk may also impact your ability to meet all of your customer requirements. In addition to risks, other changes may occur on your project for any number of different reasons. This is when you’ll need to examine the project trade-offs. To examine the project trade-offs, be clear about the impact that any change will have on the project-whether it be more time, budget, resources, etc. This includes:
- The reasons for requesting a change request
- How the change impacts the project with respect to customer requirements, time, scope, etc.
- What recommendations you have to deal with the situation, (never give just one) and
- What the outcome will be on the project if each of your recommendations is not accepted.
The more information you give to your sponsor to consider, the higher the likelihood they’ll give you an acceptable response. The reason why Sponsors don’t often approve change requests and insist that project managers stay true to their original project requirements is because they have not been given enough information to make an informed decision. Therefore they insist that no trade-offs be allowed on the project.
Please keep me updated as you progress through your project’s execution. I am very interested to know whether or not you really need to exercise any of the project trade-offs.
Signed: The Project Coach
Michael Stanleigh is the President and CEO of Business Improvement Architects. He works with executives and senior managers around the world to help them improve operational effectiveness through strategic planning, leadership development, project management and quality management. Michael has been instrumental in helping his clients reduce waste and increase efficiencies and profits with his clear processes and quality approach.
For more information about this article, please contact bia(TM) at info@bia.ca.
Dear Worried,
What you are experiencing is common in the project management world. It took me quite some time to realize that there was nothing wrong with management wanting it all. Don’t we all. You also have to remember, they may be aware of some information, etc that you are not. It was several years back that I finally realized it was my job as a project manager to take management’s request and do my best to see what scope could realistically be delivered with the time, resources, and budget initially offered.
I totally agree with Mr. Stanleigh on performing a Project Risk Evaluation early and include strategies to mitigate, avoid, or transfer the risk into your project plan. It also critical to manage change during the project. I would also suggest the following:
First go back to your sponsor and attempt to gain an understanding of what is driving the timeline allotted for the project and if it MUST be completed by a specific date or is providing all the deliverables requested more important than a hard end date.
Once you know whether you are dealing with a hard end date or just a target date, you can go to your stakeholders (I like to do this in a one on one setting if possible) and let them know that the goal is to provide all of the requested requirements. However, let them know that it is important to identify the deliverables/requirements that MUST be provided upon the initial go-live to ensure project is planned with those deliverables as a priority. I typically phrase the question like this, “Which of these deliverables/requirements, if not completed, would prevent us from going live. I have been managing projects for over 14 years and there have always been requirements that are “Critical” for the initial project go-live and others that could be delivered in a later phase or iteration, if abslutely necessary.
Now that you have your list of “Critical” deliverables/requirements you are equipped to plan the project so that those deliverables are produced first. In addition, these are the deliverables I usually assign to my strongest personnel. Include the other deliverables/requirements as well, just make sure they are worked after the “Critical” deliverables are completed.
Good luck and please share how it goes.
Bryan Menn, PMP