Geometric Project Managment

In a prominent banking institution a member of the IT staff made the following sarcastic joke; "In any other part of the world, two people might create a baby in 9 months, but here they throw 18 people at the problem and expect results in 1 month."

Simple math, right? Hardly so. There is no parallel dimension where human development happens at a faster rate. Certain things are just hard constraints with absolutely no variables. In other cases, like in the world of IT, the variables do exist, but only with trade-offs or functions that can be illustrated through geometric and mathematical formula. Geometry applied to project management - looks like witchcraft!

The usual real-world constraints of any set of Requirements are Cost, Resources, and Time. Conceptually this is simple. For any given project there exists a set of movable laws of nature. A set of requirements can be produced in a significantly shorter time, but only with an increase in cost and/or resources. Cost can be reduced, but only with an investment of time and/or resources. One can argue that Time and Cost are resources, and normally I would agree in the most broad definitions. Consider though that with an overall reduction or increase in Requirements, there is a direct relationship with the other inputs of this function.

Just as changing a single attribute of a triangle effect the other attributes, the same holds true for a set of requirements in a project.