Quality is not a trade-off

We build on Time, on Budget, with defined Quality level. Please, choose two.
— Project Manager’s anecdote

The thing with this anecdote, that Project Manager forgot or undoubtedly fixed the 4-th element: the Scope.

But the Scope is a matter of trade-off!

Agile methodology teaches us: “Fix Time and Budget, Flex Scope” — and it doesn’t include Quality into equation, because Quality — is not a trade-off.

That’s why a better version of an anecdote would be:

We build on Time, on Budget and Scope we’ve defined. Please, choose two.
— Project Manager’s anecdote 2.0

Or not anecdote at all:

We build on Time and on Budget as much as we can from Scope we’ve defined. Please, prioritize the Scope.
— Project Manager’s not anecdote at all

Inspired by Julie Zhuo’s article: Quality is not a tradeoff.
Thank you!