Triple Threat and article by Roberto Toledo.

Triple Threat and article by Roberto Toledo.

I read an interesting article in the August 2013 PMnetwork. I guess that shows that I am behind in my reading. Roberto Toledo wrote about the triple threat of complexity, uncertainty, and changeability. After briefly looking at the triple constraints of scope, cost, and schedule, he discussed the three concepts of complexity, uncertainty, and changeability as the three biggest threats to project success.

Although, project managers need to keep in mind balancing act between cost, schedule and quality, this mindset also creates a barrier for project managers. It is true that if there is a change in schedule would need to look at the impact on cost and quality. If there’s a change in cost, we need to understand the impact on schedule and quality. There is also the possibility that a change in cost my created an opportunity for exploring new ways of approaching a schedule and for new ways to define the quality of the deliverables. I’ve seen a number of incidences where we have been able to increase the quality components of the deliverable and at the same time reduce costs or schedule or both. This takes some innovative thinking that can be constrained by only looking at the model of the triple constraints.

Toledo looked at complexity, uncertainty and changeability as concepts that need to be managed on every project. He suggested managing complexity through the process of “divide and conquer”. This included using your WBS to break your project down into smaller components. Uncertainty refers to the risk on the project in dealing with risk management. Changeability focused on managing the scope with effective change management process.

Although this was a very brief article, Toledo did an excellent job of summarizing the concepts. These are three concepts that managers need to manage effectively for the project success. Risk management and change management at the end the part of the project manager’s toolbox for long time.

Complexity of the project is less discussed. Toledo did not define complexity. What might be considered complex than one project profile may not be considered complex one another project. It would’ve been interesting to hear more from Toledo on how he defines complexity and expand on more than one method of managing complexity.

Russ