Time Management Scope and Time Management: Managing

¶ … Time Management

Scope and Time Management:

Managing Constraints in Project Management

Managing the constraints of time, cost and scope determines the level of quality a given project attains. The strategies project management professionals use to optimize the performance of projects take into account these three constraints while also looking for dependencies on hwo these specific resources are used (Clark, 1989). The constraints of time, cost and scope are also used for determining the duration of a project's schedule and the level of investment made in process re-engineering and improvement to improve performance over time (Hameri, Heikkila, 2002). Controlling a project for scope has immediate effects on time management, and can accelerate the completion of a project if taken in the context of constraint-based optimization (Woolshlager, 1986). There are a wide variety of optimization techniques and tools available for ensuring the highest possible project performance for the lowest cost (Amalesh, Hengle, Sawhney, Kumanan, 2007). The ability to optimize a project on time constraints and see the implications on costs takes advanced project management skills and the ability to manage complexity of tasks and also budget in time for uncertainty and interruptions as well (Hameri, Heikkila, 2002). The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how scope and time management can be used to better lead to project completion timeframes and at or below budget. The ability to optimize the mix of time, cost and scope constraints can very often determines the long-term profitability of an enterprise (Schnoll, 2011).

Optimizing for Time and Scope Management

Of the many skill sets an effective project manager needs, foremost is the ability to analytically determine how best to manage the complexity of constraints and dependencies of time, cost and scope. Making the optimization of these three factors even more challenging is the needs to recursively optimize these three constraints throughout each of the six stages of the lifecycles as shown below. Through project definition, to project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring & control and closure, project managers need to be able to manage for constraints in scope and time management across each (Amalesh, Hengle, Sawhney, Kumanan, 2007). When this occurs a project paradoxically doesn't experience scope creep when new factors or potential deviations in project definition occur. Instead there is a clearer focus on how the [potential scope creep acts as a catalyst to clarify time and scope constraints. Through a continually recursive approach to managing these constraints, project managers are able to also clarify and strengthen the core assumptions of their projects (Amalesh, Hengle, Sawhney, Kumanan, 2007). The recursive nature of evaluating constraints, both time- and scope-based, leads to greater clarity in project purpose (Clark, 1989). For the project managers working to create a more complex series of constraints over time predicated on a network of dependencies, this approach to continually re-evaluating the time and scope constraints serves to also galvanize budget assumptions and estimates as well (Schnoll, 2011).

The advanced approaches to optimizing project schedules, including the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and advanced formed of simulations including Monte Carlo, and others based on randomization of events, have proven to be effective in making the theories of project management progress (Amalesh, Hengle, Sawhney, Kumanan, 2007). These approaches to managing constraints are predicated on linear programming which seeks to optimize all available resources to a given objective or specific goal. Advanced linear programming is often rules-based, taking into account algorithms to define how best to optimize a schedule for time and cost considerations.