No project is free of constraints. As hard as it is to do sometimes, it’s important to identify your constraints, come to terms with them (or change them) and plan accordingly. Doing this activity will help you decide where to make trade-offs.
The classic reality check is the cheap, fast, good (pick two) triangle. For example, you can have cheap and fast but the quality will suffer.
A more detailed version comes from Abby Covert’s How to Make Sense of Any Mess:
- Time: “I only have __________.”
- Resources: “I have __________.”
- Skillset: “I know how to _________ but I don’t know how to ____________ yet.”
- Environment: “I’m working in a ____________.”
- Personality: “I want this work to say ______________ about me.”
- Politics: “Others want this work to say ___________ about __________.”
- Ethics: “I want this work to do right by the world by _____________.”
- Integrity: “I want to be proud of the results of my work, which means ________________.”