A Bit of Education

Yes, I know it's Saturday and I normally wouldn't have published a blog post today.  But I found this and had to share.

Okay, it’s well known in developer circles, but this is something that, for some reason, escapes a HUGE chunk of the populous in general.

So there are three main factors that go into any IT project.  In fact, it’s generally the same three factors that go into nearly ANY project:

• Time
• Money
• Quality

You see, you can pick two, but you cannot pick all three.  If you want it good and fast, it will cost a lot of money (because they generally need more people working on it).  If you want it good and cheap, you’re going to have to wait a long time (because they can only afford so many people working on it).  If you want it fast and cheap, the product is going to be crappy, and clearly done in a rush (because they could not take their time to fix any mistakes or give exacting detail).

And, for some odd reason, people seem to think there is a fourth option: Free.  Sadly, graphics designers, project managers, programmers, web designers, network specialists, contractors, home builders…..we’ve all had to deal with a client/customer who thought free was an option.

And so, I present a Venn Diagram that I found online.  The original artist is Colin Harman, who appears to have a strong grasp on what this entails.  Though, his image is titled for Graphic Design, the same diagram can apply to nearly any project.

And so, without further ado:

(The original can be found here.)

And here’s my re-work of the same design, but more broadly titled:

del.icio.us Tags: IT,Networking,Projects,Programming,Development