WEB DEVELOPMENT

There are typically four variables used to think about and control any software development project being cost, quality, time and scope.

Adjusting any one of these variables invariably affects the others. If you try to specify three of them, the fourth one cannot be adjusted. Furthermore, the effect of adjusting any of the four variables has an effect that is delayed and non-linear. For example, you can’t just double the cost to halve the time.

Simply increasing the costs by adding more people to the development team can help a project along a little but can quickly raise more problems than it solves. On the other hand, too little money will make it impossible to solve the customer’s problems.

Adjusting the time variable by postponing the delivery date has the effect of increasing costs but may improve quality and scope. Decrease the amount of time and both quality and scope will suffer in the immediate term and costs will go up further down the road.

Quality is a very poor variable to try and adjust. Short-term gains may be achieved by deliberately sacrificing quality but the long-term business costs can be enormous.

Adjusting the scope of a project makes it possible to deliver better quality, deliver sooner or deliver for less cost. Of these four variables, scope provides the most valuable form of control over a software project.