NAME: KIRAN LIAQAT
ID: 222296
PROJECT MANAGEMENT ESSENTIALS
Whether "quality" should be part of the iron triangle or not
If yes, why?
If not, why?
My stance is “NO”. Quality should not be part of the iron triangle.
I see Quality as the center of the Iron triangle. There are multiple reasons for it:
Quality cannot be traded off with any other constraints: time, Cost, and Scope.
1. Quality is Not Interchangeable with any of the three constraints. For example, we
trade off our costs to get a project done in less time. Similarly, if we change our
planned scope it impacts our time and cost too and we adjust them to create a balance
between these three to get a successful project. Here are some questions to make it
clear:
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Can we trade off quality with less time?
Can we interchange quality with costs?
Can quality be adjusted with Our Scope?
In some cases, the answer to these questions is a yes, for example, many times
quality is compromised over budget, over time, or with scope but are we taking
our project conditionally that sometimes we do this or that?
My answer to these questions is a very simple No.
o If in any case yes to the above questions, our objective is not
achieved because quality is lost/compromised.
o If any of the three constraints creates an imbalance, it will directly
impact Quality.
2. We can also explain it in terms of Balance.
• Why do we need to create a balance between constraints to get success?
• Can we make quality a factor like time, cost, and scope and balance it?
• Can quality be adjusted or changes in it would be accepted?
• What are we achieving by balancing constraints? Isn’t it Quality?
If we answer these questions, we can define quality as our result and time, cost,
and scope as factors. Our quality depends on the balanced trade-off of our time,
cost, and quality.
3. Quality isn’t a limited/fixed concept. It is a broader term and we can define it in
multiple ways. According to ISO/IEC 25010 standards, Quality has Eight Attributes.
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Time, Scope, and cost are limited concepts. We can define these three
constraints somehow, easily in our project but does that same go for quality?
How can we trade off cost or time or scope with Quality (Assuming we have
to get all the attributes of quality)? How would we adjust it?
It is impossible, so just make it rest in the center of the Iron Triangle.
4. Every Triangle has three interior angles and their sum is 180D.
• Angle A+ Angle B + Angle C = Angle ABC
To me, Time Cost, and scope are the interior angles of the iron triangle and
their sum is quality.
Time+ Cost+ Scope = Quality
To get Quality, adjustments are made between Time, cost, and scope.
Final Statement: There is still room for an open discussion.
After giving my stance on quality as a constraint and the Iron Triangle discussion to make it
Quadruple Constraints; questions arose that are:
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Are Quality and Scope the same or fall in the same category?
Can we make a Hierarchical structure of these constraints having Quality
at the top of the Hierarchy followed by scope?
References:
(ISO/IEC 25010, n.d.)