Hollywood Secrets of Project Management Success

Benefits of the Time Box Approach

The use of iterative approaches, such as Agile, can help IT organizations manage the ultimate size and viability of their projects by imposing some elemental limitations, most often centered on project time frames. (The general shape of this approach is illustrated in Figure 5-1.) These limitations should not be seen as artificial. In most shops, they are very real. Resources, facilities, and missions are naturally limited. No shop can do everything it wants to do or everything it’s asked to do. Problems come only when these limitations are not recognized, or are recognized but ignored. The quartet of major project management concerns—quality, cost, schedule, and resource control—can all be placed at risk when ...