Projects are inherently risky, since they involve some level of uncertainty, doing something new in the target environment, but the percentage of projects seen as a success is still disappointingly low, especially for IT projects. The "Iron Triangle" of time/cost/quality suggests that all 3 aspects are equal, but in a recent survey by the University of Manchester, the majority of problems were found to relate to quality underperformance, while the APM SIG on Systems Thinking reports that project management focus is primarily on managing cost and time. This book seeks to redress the balance, explaining the rationale and benefits of focusing more on quality (fitness for purpose and conformance to requirements) before detailing a range of tools and techniques to support rebalancing the management of projects, programmes and portfolios. It shows how managing project quality actively reduces costs through minimising wastage, and reduces delays through avoiding rework, leading to improved project success rates and customer satisfaction.
Project Success and Quality : Balancing the Iron Triangle