Using the 'iron triangle' to focus the team

If you recall Martin Barnes' really simple but effective time/cost/quality triangle, I can't think who showed me this but you can use this triangle to tease out where people think a particular project's emphasis is, according to the requirements of the client. Some clients want utopia (the project tomorrow, for free and outstanding quality!) but thankfully most have a realistic understanding that there are trade-offs in the 3 points. Martin wants quality to be substituted with performance, which makes absolute sense, so draw a good sized triangle with the 3 points of time, cost and performance on a flip chart. Then, with a marker pen, ask each person (in the workshop, meeting or whatever the environment) to mark on the triangle a single dot representing where they feel the client expects the emphasis of this project to be. You may be surprised with the outcome, but it gives an opportunity to address the lack of alignment, if it exists.

Have a go, let us know how you get on....