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A project is a temporary undertaking performed to produce a unique product, service, or result. Large or small, a project always has the following three components:

 Specific scope: Desired results or products (check out Chapter 5 for more on describing desired results)

 Schedule: Established dates when project work starts and ends (see Chapter 7 for how to develop responsive and feasible project schedules)

 Required resources: Necessary number of people, funds, and other supporting elements like lab space, test equipment, manufacturing facilities, computer hardware and software, and so on (see Chapter 8 for how to establish whom you need for your project and Chapter 9 for how to set up your budget and determine any other resources you need)

As illustrated in Figure 1-1, each component affects the other two. For example: Expanding the type and characteristics of desired outcomes may require more time (a later end date) or more resources. Moving up the end date may necessitate paring down the scope or increasing project expenditures (for instance, by paying overtime to project staff). It is within this three-part project definition that you perform work to achieve your desired results.

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FIGURE 1-1: The relationship between the three main components of a project.

Although many other considerations may affect a project’s performance, these three components are the basis of a project’s definition for the following three reasons:

 The only reason a project exists is to produce the results specified in its scope.

 The project’s end date is an essential part of defining what constitutes successful performance, as the desired result must be achieved by a certain time to meet its intended need.

 The availability of resources shapes the nature of the results the project can produce.

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 7th Edition (PMBOK 7), elaborates on these components by:

 Emphasizing that product includes both the basic nature of what is to be produced (for example, a new software program or a new prescription drug) and its required characteristics (for example, the features and functions the software program must include), which are defined as the product’s quality.

 Noting that resources refers to funds, as well as to other, nonmonetary resources, such as people, equipment, raw materials, and facilities.

PMBOK 7 also emphasizes that risk (the likelihood that not everything will go exactly according to plan) plays an important role in defining a project and that guiding a project to success involves continually managing trade-offs among the three main project components — the products to be produced and their characteristics, the schedule, and the resources required to do the project work.

You may have encountered the previous concept with slightly different terms, including the Project Management Triangle, the Time-Cost-Scope Continuum, the Triple Constraint, and the Iron Triangle, to name a few. Time is often used interchangeably with Schedule, Cost with Resources, and Scope with Product. The exact terminology you use is immaterial; the key takeaway from this section is that every project is constrained in some way or another by each of these three elements and all three are inextricably linked. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to use these three levers throughout your project to influence the quality of your results.