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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Leading and managing projects

Corvane Engineering is running a large project. The sponsor wants it completed two months early without increasing cost or reducing quality. The project manager has no spare resources and the critical path is fully constrained. Applying the project constraints model, what is the most accurate implication?

Time, cost and quality or scope are interdependent, so finishing two months early without extra cost or lower quality is unrealistic when resources are fixed and the critical path is constrained. Something must give: add resources, cut scope, or accept a trade-off agreed with the sponsor.

  1. AThe three constraints are interdependent, so the target is unachievable unless scope is reduced, resources are added or another constraint is relaxedCorrect
  2. BTime can be shortened without affecting cost or quality if the team works harder
  3. CQuality is independent of time and cost, so it can be increased freely
  4. DOnly cost is a true constraint; time and scope can always be flexed

Explanation

Time, cost and quality/scope are interlinked: improving one usually requires trading off another. With fixed resources and a constrained critical path, compressing the schedule requires added resource (cost), reduced scope or lower quality. Assuming effort alone solves it ignores this trade-off.

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