The Quality Triangle
The Quality Triangle is often joked about but seldom understood to be a real phenomenon. It is sometimes mentioned sarcastically by a dismayed project member when a client asks for a large task on a budget . There are very few absolute rules in life, but I feel that this axiom holds true across many professions and personal endeavors alike. Whether a client realizes it or not, you can’t have it fast cheap and good.
You can't have all three!
I wish I could say that any designer or developer should be able to find an elegant way to pull all three off, but I can’t. I’ve come to realize that clients can make requests that truly astonish me. Sometimes the request merely illustrates how a client can want to have their cake and eat it too, but once in a while you get a request that spotlights an individual’s complete separation from reality.
If you insist on exploring the truly wacky side of client interaction, the there are places that can illustrate this point rather sharply. Some of my favorites that I’ve saved from eLance:
“Need photo hosting, management and sharing site just like flickr. Budget: $1000″
“Do you want to create the next facebook?! Budget: $500″
“Dating website with social networking tools. Budget $500″
More information about this topic:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_triangle
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management_triangle
- http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=63190
- http://www.sixside.com/fast_good_cheap.asp
- http://ifacethoughts.net/2007/05/04/fast-good-and-cheap/
- http://www.codescene.com/2006/01/the-design-triangle.php
- http://www.stc.org/intercom/PDFs/2001/200104_06-10.pdf
- http://ifacethoughts.net/2007/05/04/fast-good-and-cheap/
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