182 Project Management
ate your schedule prob-
lems, but will probably
increase costs. Using less
expensive materials may
save money, but could
affect the functionality or
quality of the project deliv-
erables.
It follows, then, that
you cannot always protect
the integrity of all four
dimensions at once. But
which dimension(s)
should you favor? This is
exactly the question you
should ask of key stake-
holders—particularly the
customer—at the outset of the project. Many times, they’ll have
a preference.
If you’re lucky, stakeholders will express their preferences: “I
want you to hold the schedule, even if it the costs run over” or “If
you need to take more time to make sure this thing works, do it!”
Unfortunately, not all stakeholders are this explicit. However,
if you simply spend time discussing the project with them, you’ll
often come to understand what their preferences are.
Learn from all problems. Simply resolving a problem when it
occurs is not enough. One of the habits you should get into is
pausing to reflect on the problem you’ve just encountered. Ask
yourself (and others) key questions, such as the following:
- Could this problem happen again?
- If so, can we prevent it? How?
- If we can’t prevent it, can we mitigate its effects?
- Could this problem happen to others? If so, how do I
alert them? - Does this problem affect others? How? What can be done?
Interviewing
Techniques
Determining stakeholders’ priori-
ties for schedule, cost, functionality, and
performance targets can be difficult at
times. One method that often yields
good results consists of using an inter-
viewing approach.Ask them hypotheti-
cal questions, such as “What if the
project were to overrun by $20,000?”
or “What if we ran into problems and
were three weeks late?”
Take note of their answers—and
their body language.This will often
provide you with insights for making
intelligent tradeoffs if you need to
take corrective action.