ABSTRACT
Project management is delivering a desired outcome within an agreed timescale, for an agreed cost, and to an agreed level of quality. The best project managers set themselves up for success by ensuring their stakeholders understand the cost/benefit trade-offs they are making especially when they make demands on time, cost, or quality. In both the example of the watches and the houses, quality and scope are different, but if viewed in terms of the amount the projects are being required to deliver, they are grouped together. Scope and quality are different but for most practical purposes, and particularly in terms of the Holy Trinity of project management, they can be viewed together. People have a tendency to artificially fix dates because they think it drives delivery, or because they have an (often unfounded) expectation of the time it will take. Fixed cost usually relates to an available budget, or an agreement to do the work for a set price.
