Page 121 - Project+

what their expectations are regarding deliverable due dates, project completion dates,

and other time frames or dates that may be off-limits.

You do not have the luxury of working on a project with no constraints.
Remember that the most common constraints on any project are scope, budget,
and time. You will need to balance and weigh constraints against each other to
determine the best way to accomplish the goals of the project while also deciding

which constraint is more important and which constraint has more flexibility. This
requires communication with your sponsor and stakeholders and managing
expectations.

Influences

Influences are those factors that may impact or change an existing constraint or may
bring about a new constraint. According to CompTIA, the following are common
influences:

Change request

Scope creep

Constraint reprioritization

Interaction between constraints

Stakeholder/sponsors/management

Other projects

You’ll look at each of these next.

Change Request

A change request can impact existing constraints or bring about a new constraint on
the project. For example, if your project is already time-constrained and the change

request your stakeholders just approved changes the project due date, the scheduling
constraint is impacted.

Scope Creep

I’ve talked a lot about scope creep. It is imperative that you control changes to scope
with an established change management procedure to assure project success. You’ll
learn more about change management processes in Chapter 9.

Constraint Reprioritization

Reprioritizing the constraints may change their impacts or influence on the project.
For example, let’s say the primary constraint on your project is scheduling because you

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