The Iron Triangle

Happy Autumn! How many of us have New Year’s Resolutions?  Did we ever consider our Professional Development Plans to be our resolutions as well? We check in every few months with those resolutions to confirm we’re on track, if we need to change course, and if external factors are affecting our abilities to meet those goals.  I recently took inventory of my own development plan for the year. I reveled in my accomplishments I had over the past 9 months and reviewed what I plan to accomplish before the end of the year. I also did my regular soul-searching to figure out my goals for next year. I adjusted the timing of when I wanted to complete some professional training courses, as those in-person courses were canceled due to the pandemic. I also added some socially-distant/virtually-friendly opportunities for next year to adjust to our current environment.  Are you where you want to be in your career? Do you perform your regular career check on yourself, where you want to be, when you want and how you want to get there? 

The Iron Triangle of Project Management

Scope, Budget and Schedule, is the model Project Managers use to drive successful projects. These constraints must be balanced to achieve the desired outcomes. So how can we use the Iron Triangle in self-assessing our career? Let’s take a closer look.

Scope:

We have visions of what our “Dream Job” is, and we look at our current role and ask ourselves, “What are my next goals? What are my passions? What do I want to sharpen? What do I want to learn?” We are all asked that age-old question “Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years?”. Scope is the set of goals and objectives you want to achieve. As we start to think about our annual performance reviews and development goal discussions, it is a great time to do some soul searching of what you want to do next. The set of goals is your scope. Perhaps you’d like to advance to the next level position? Or you love what you do but would like to pump up your brain power and skillsets? If you’re not sure what that means to you, consulting with a mentor or manager for guidance will help.

Budget:

How much do you want to invest in your goals? This may be relevant in the financial sense, but budget also means how much you want to do in order to achieve your goals (aka Scope). If you are going for professional certifications or an advanced degree, how much outside of work are you willing to do in order to get there? How much are you willing to do at work to get to the next level? Are you willing to take on new challenges related to your goals, take on new assignments? How will this impact your personal time? These questions are very important in determining your Career Budget.

Schedule:

How much time are you giving yourself to meet the scope? Are the timelines realistic? We all have day jobs, but we are also human. We wish we can stretch out the 24 hours, 7 days, 4 weeks, and 12 months we have to do everything we want and be successful. Determining a realistic schedule for yourself to achieve your goals will give you the structure of the “when” you will get there.

Using the Iron Triangle as a framework for career success benefits us in so many ways.

Knowing what to do, how to do it, and when to do it are the key factors in our journey. Balancing these sides of the Triangle will present some challenges, so we can lean on our personal and professional support systems to guide us, and help us get back on track if we need to. Our current global environment will also be a factor in deciding what, how, and when we will accomplish our goals. Flexibility, Creativity and Safety will be keys to success during the pandemic. Let’s tap into our insight and inspiration as well, and think of the three words that encourage Olympic athletes to give their best during competition. Let’s do what we can to be Faster, Higher, Stronger!

-Gail