1. Explain the triple constraint and its importance in project management.
The triple constraint involves making trade offs between scope, time and cost for a project. It is inevitable in a project life cycle that there will be changes to the scope, time or cost of the project. The relationship between the three primary variable in any project is time, cost and scope. these variable are interdependent.
A project charter is a document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorises the existence of a project and provide the project manager with the authority to apply organisational resources to project activities. A project charter typically includes several elements;
project scope
project objectives
project constraints
project assumptions
A project plan is a formal, approved document that manages and controls project execution. A well-defined project plan should be:
- Easy to understand and read
- Communicated to all key participants
- Appropriate to the project’s size, complexity, and critically
- Prepared by the team, rather than by the individual project manager
3. Identify the three primary areas a project manager must focus on managing to ensure success.
A project manager must focus on managing three primary areas to ensure success:
- Managing people
- Managing communications
- Managing change
Reasons why projects fail;
- Failure to align project with organizational objectives
- Poor scope
- Unrealistic expectations
- Lack of executive sponsorship
- Lack of project management
- Inability to move beyond individual and personality conflicts
- Politics
- Project Sponsorship at executive level
- Good project charter
- Strong project management
- The right mix of team players
- Good decision making structure
- Good communication
- Team members are working toward common goals
