If you are a project manager (or any other new role title that stands for more or less the same) you most likely have been told that a project has three competing objectives: time, cost, quality.
The first time you heard about it it was eye opening ‚yeah right, you can’t have it all! The triangle is the way to force top managers into a decision: T, C or Q?‘ Holding this new sword in your hands you return from the PM seminar to your office.
Next time your boss comes around and asks for the impossible, you draw your sword and shout ‚hold on, beast! Taste the cold steel of my magical triangle sword! You cannot have it all. The only way to save your wrinkled neck is to make your choice: T, C or Q. Huhuuu!‘ And then the dragon eats you alive.
What happened? Maybe the magic was too weak? Nope. It is not magical at all. It is just another way to tell your boss ‚I can’t do that‘ and that is not what he likes to hear.
Let me tell you what’s magic: look back at the past business year. All the hard work, tries, errors, tears and sweat. Now sum up all your output, your results. Is it a lot? Only the results – not the effords please! Could the same results have been acheived in less time? Yes. But why haven’t you? Why could others do it? That’s magic 😉