The invisible corner of the triangle

Everyone in project management knows the triangle: scope, budget, timing.

Change one, and you have to move at least one of the others.

That’s the rule.

You can’t increase scope without increasing budget or extending the timeline. You can’t cut budget without impacting scope or time. You can’t speed things up without adding more money or cutting corners somewhere.

Simple.

Logical.

Non-negotiable.

Except… so many people still try to negotiate with it.They want more scope, but not a single extra euro. They want things done faster, but the scope stays the same. They want to cut budget, but have no room to push back the deadline.

And when that happens

when the triangle is forced to hold

something else takes the hit.

Quality.

It’s not in the triangle.

But it should be.

Because when you're unwilling to move scope, timing, or budget ... quality becomes the silent casualty. Every single time.

It might not show up immediately.

The project gets delivered, the box is ticked, and everyone applauds.

Until a few weeks later.

When bugs surface.

When users get frustrated.

When the product behaves erratically.

When tech debt mounts.

When it just doesn’t quite feel right.

And then comes the irony: People point fingers at the delivery team.

They say it’s a lack of competence.

That the team wasn’t good enough.

That it wasn’t tested well.

That the execution failed.

Rarely does anyone say: “Hey, maybe it’s because we refused to acknowledge the basics. Maybe we didn’t give them what they needed.”

Because here’s the thing: even the most talented, driven, optimistic team can’t escape this reality. They can work miracles, but not magic. If you squeeze a triangle too tightly without shifting one side, you crush what’s inside it.

And that’s why I’d put quality in the very middle of the triangle.

Visible.

Named.

Explicit.

So everyone knows what’s at stake if they refuse to play by the rules.

We need to stop pretending pressure alone will deliver results.

We need to stop rewarding heroism over balance.

And we need to get better at saying: “If you want to change this, here’s what else needs to move.”