Project Management - Interaction

In the third installment of the Project Management series, we had talked about the project management elements of time, resources, cost and quality. Now, we are going to tackle how they can be managed.

Managing time, resources, cost and quality in separate installments would impose demands on the project manager. In practice however, the four should be managed simultaneously, these four elements are always in interaction and continuously changing. There are even times when they seem to be pull each other in different directions.

The heaviest task that the project manager has to do is to continuously make decisions based on how these elements influence in the project. Examples of the type of interaction required are the following:

a. Managing Time

If the project is already way behind schedule and doubts are creeping in as to whether the target completion date will be able to be met or not can be resolved by:

• Acquisition of extra resources to speed up the completion of the work.
• Asking existing staff to work overtime.
• Through reduction of specific testing procedures and checks. The risk though is that quality and user confidence in the system may be reduced.

b. Quality Management

The dilemma here is: high quality standards in system performance and user interface will usually enhance operational feasibility but it may take time to get to this quality level and thus may prove to be more expensive. However, quality does not necessarily mean additional time, cost, or resources so the resolution might be to provide staff that is properly trained and motivated.

c. Resources Management

If it all boils down to a choice between extension of project timescales and the hiring of additional temporary staff to cope with the peak workload, most project managers would choose the former. This is due to the fact that additional staff may result in increase of expenditures, reduction of quality, and possibly problems in human resource management.

d. Costs Management

Expenditure is woven intricately into the management of the three elements. Managing this would involve seeking to reduce or minimize the costs through:

• Extension of the time to finish the project, which is actually avoiding the hiring of extra staff or overtime hours.
• The utilization of less expensive resources wherever possible.Reducing the quality standards.