I was asked: “To me Project Management is about scope, budget, and timing. You nail those three things (and I always do) and the rest is?”
The golden triangle of project management (scope, budget, time) has never changed. I still have a copy of the book my father gave to me years back that drives home the importance of these three. It was written by Ford and Detroit Art Services back in the 1980s and was the go-to manual on PM.
In the twenty or thirty years of project management practice since that book was created, the stark reality set in about the customer. We can have perfect project (to scope, under budget, shipped early) that fails to deliver what the customer actually wants. The PM is completely satisfied. The customer is the complete opposite.
Today project management practice includes things like managing stakeholders, communications, and HR. Because projects do not exist in a vacuum, it also includes integration and procurement. The result is deliverables that (hopefully) better meet the customer needs and are sustainable.
Being on time and on budget is akin to showing up. It is the prerequisite to success, not the guarantee.
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