Project Constraints

I was riding my motorcycle from Manteo in the Outer Banks to Chapel Hill, NC when I came across a road sign that made me want to stop in my tracks. The sign warned of constant, strong cross winds on the bridge between the Outer Banks and the NC shore. Since it was a bit windy anyway I was concerned. Besides thinking I was crazy for taking the trip from Columbus Ohio to the Outer Banks to Chapel Hill and back home alone, I thought about the constraints influencing my decision about what I would do with this new information.

Constraints are a normal part of every project I’ve ever managed so I have gotten used to events, processes, technology or people that limit my options to making forward progress. The dictionary definition of constraint is “limitation or restriction” with synonyms such as “force, obligation, pressure”. Constraints are information for the project team and are defined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), a standard for project management processes published by the Project Management Institute, Inc (PMI), as:

“The state, quality, or sense of being restricted to a given course of action or inaction. An applicable restriction or limitation, either internal or external to a project, which will affect the performance of the project or process.”

Based on this definition almost any project parameter could be a constraint. A constraint is imposed upon the project and must be taken into consideration when performing project activities such as planning and problem solving. The PMBOK goes on to emphasize that project management includes “balancing the competing project constraints” and the project manager “manages the constraints”.

The reason there is a focus on constraints is because constraints provide the filter through which most project decisions are made. In the world of motorcycling the constraints include the weight the bike can carry, the speed of the bike, the road surfaces, the weather, the condition of the tires, the hours in a day, and so on. If that is a partial list of the possible constraints for a motorcycle ride think of the project constraints that can exist. In order to provide focus to a project it is important to be aware of the possible constraints while focusing on the significant few.

The triple constraints of time, quality and cost have been called a triple constraint. The “good, fast, cheap” rule of thumb was that a client could have two of the three, “good and fast” is expensive, “fast and cheap” has poorer quality, and “good and cheap” is slow to deliver. The formal list of constraints that require project management focus has grown over the years. More recently I’ve seen the list include scope, cost, schedule, resource, quality and risk. I’ve also seen technology listed as a constraint. Identifying the project constraints is important for making knowledgeable decisions.

As I continue riding I thought about the weight of the bike, how strong I am, how awake or tired I am, the length of the bridge, the width of the road, when I said I would arrive, what other roads would take me to my destination and every other constraint that I was able to think through. I thought about my experiences riding in heavy cross winds before and decided to continue forward. The impact of my decision would be I would get tired sooner which could impact my drive time.

Projects work the same way. Each time a decision point occurs, which is any time an issue or opportunity arises, the team must use the constraints as the filter for the decision. They should also have a working knowledge of the relative importance of the constraints to the project sponsor. Making decisions based on an understanding of the impacts on the constraints and knowledge of the importance of each of those constraints to a sponsor, decisions can be easier to present to the project leadership.

Ride On, Manage On