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Introduction to the Quality Triangle

Fred Schenkelberg
4 min readApr 10, 2017

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The Quality Triangle of Priorities and Balance

Have you ever worked on a project with no deadlines, unlimited resources, and boundless scope? Probably not.

Quality Triangle-1
The Quality Triangle

You may have worked under the guidelines of a quality triangle, also known as a project management triangle, iron triangle, or project triangle.

Why is that? Why the limits to our ability to create a product or improve a system?

First, the world we work and live within has limits. We have only so much time for work, only the available resources, and limited knowledge. We do the best with what we have to work with at the time.

Second, as I once was told while working on an accelerated test design, ‘if there isn’t a deadline, you’ll happily tinker with the plan and get the testing done.’ My boss was right off course.

The set of constraints shape our projects and products. By understanding the set of constraints, specifically how they frame decisions, then we can complete complex projects.

Traditional Tradeoffs

Quality Triangle-2
A Common Depiction of the Iron Triangle

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Fred Schenkelberg
Fred Schenkelberg

Written by Fred Schenkelberg

Reliability Engineering and Management Consultant focused on improving product reliability and increasing equipment availability.

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