BUS528 Project Management: Chapter 9

Balancing the Trade-off among Cost, Schedule, and Quality

Balancing a project can take place at one of three different levels of authority in an organization, depending on the kind of change needed.

To understand why the decision to change the cost-schedule-quality equilibrium has to be made at the business level consider that:-

1. Cost goals are related to profitability goals. Raising cost targets for the project means reevaluating the profit goals.
2. Schedules are closely linked to the business case. Projects that deliver late often incur some profit penalty, either through missed opportunities or actual monetary penalities spelled out in the contract.
3. Changing the features and performance level of the product affects the quality - and therefore the value - of the end product.