[vcf-midatlantic] efficiency, put another way

[Brian L. Stuart]

Neil Cherry wrote:
> Fast (amount of time to do), Good (quality, meets
> requirements), and Cheap (overall cost). Pick any 2

I've heard this all my life, but it not really true.  To some
degree it does say something about the finished product,
but it doesn't extend to the process of creating that product.
No amount of money will buy time.  Throwing more people
at a project won't make it happen any faster.  The reality
is that you can either say what or you can say when, but
you can't say both.  The greatest project failures I've seen
all come down to someone who can't design their way out
of a paper bag thinking they can manage their way around
this fundamental law.  If you like, think of it like the uncertainty
principle for project management.  The more you know about
what is going to be delivered, the less you know about when
it's going to be delivered, and vice versa.  The effect that
the amount of money has on that is lost in the noise.

BLS