Sure the Triangle is Bent...But it is Still a Triangle!

Michael Harmer over at Nerdherding for Beginners talked here about what he sees as a problem with the traditional “Iron Triangle” of Project Management.

Basically, he says that the Resources | Scope | Duration triad is invalid for software because of quality. He says that writing higher quality code will actually decrease the duration of the project because it shortens testing and reduces surprises. He says:

Consider a project with a high degree of code quality. This project will proceed more smoothly since fewer difficult to identify or isolate problems will occur. What about a project with high process quality? Again the project will be smoother since the process will be well suited to the task (and people) at hand.

But higher quality code takes longer to write. Sure it takes less time to test but can we be sure that the reduced time in testing is enough to make up for the increased time in coding?

I'm not saying that the triangle is the be all end all and the sides might get bent on any given project to where it becomes some other slightly misshapen geometric shape but the sides stay connected. There IS a relationship!

Comments

[Johanna Rothman]

The iron triangle is inadequate for any reasonable discussion about projects. I use a pyramid. See http://www.jrothman.com/weblog/archive/2003_04_01_mpdarchive.html#20018