Triple constraint is an old term that originally used to refer the three competing Project constraint within which the projects are performed. These constraints are Cost, Time and Scope. But now, the word Triple Constraint is expanded, and it also includes other constraints like Risk, Customer Satisfaction, and Quality etc.

So, if you are ready for higher risk, its quiet possible that, project can be performed in lesser cost. For example, you experiment with a new technology to do certain project activities. Since the technology is new, the risks are higher, but it might work out to be lot cheaper than earlier proven and tested one.

Triple Constraint is the balance of the project’s scope, schedule time and cost. Time and cost of a project being managed by the project managers. Triple constraint is used to gauge whether a project’s objectives are being met. During the planning process of a project, the project management team define the project scope, time, cost and quality of a project. As the process continues, the project managers discover that there may be some changes or adjustments to be made in one of the project’s scope, time and cost. When this happens, the other factors of the triple constraint is likely to be affected as well.

If the cost increases in a project, it is logical to assume that the scope and time will increase as well. The same thing happens if the cost decreases, the scope and time will decrease too. It is the job of the project management team to respond to the project risk which is a possible incident or condition which can have a good or bad effect on the project.

Scope: The scope of a project is a clear, specific statement as to what has been agreed to be achieved in a particular project. In other words, the scope expressly lays out the functions,content, data,features etc. that will be included in the project at hand. You could also say that the scope clearly expresses the desired final result of a project.

Cost: This second element of the Triple Constraint is known as Cost. Resources always cost money so the two are interchangeable in many ways. When we talk about the cost of a project, we are talking about what needs to be applied or assigned to the project in terms of money and effort in order to make things happen. This can be resources like manpower, it can be materials needed for the job, resources for risk management and assessment or any third party resources that might need to be secured.

Time: Time, in project management, is analyzed its smallest detail. The amount of time required to complete each and every component of a project is analyzed. Once analysis has taken place, those components are broken down even further into the time required to do each task. Obviously from this we are able to estimate the duration of the project and how much resources required for that particular project.