There are some projects that do not really have a cost / time or quality dimension. In my industry it is very difficult for a project manager to be responsible for quality because of the diversity of technical roles involved so them have little involvement in ensuring quality appart from making sure that the quality plan is adhered to (in my case the quality plan actually has little influence on the out turn quality of the work, although it is still important). Equally you can imagine scenarios where a project has no variation in cost (the same team are working on it all the time and there are no other resources) or where time is not an issue (a publi sector research project may not have a time issue), but costs still need to be controlled. It is difficult to separate one from the other, however I think it is totally legitimate for a project manager to manage only two or even on of the dimensions and still be using a full set of project management skills.

I agree with Ian: managing a project does not necessarily mean managing all sides of the "iron triangle."

I would see project management more as a role where you are tasked with delivering something (the goal of the project) within the constraints that were defined by the project sponsor or initiator. If the constraints are only quality and time related, then that is what you should be managing.

Arcan,

Ideally a project manager does manage many aspects of the project including cost, time, scope, quality and risk. It is no longer a triple constraint as you can see. It is more of five-dimensions constraints.

However, you can still call yourself a project manager even if you don’t manage cost, but realize the following:

• You need to definitely understand the business case put for the project, if you did not put one yourself. A business case would definitely discuss costs in the form of a budget. You need to understand that business case, because, often much, this business case will be your measure of success on the project. In the business case, you will need to know what costs were assigned to what items. This should have been tightly related to the schedule and so you will need to know that in advance.

• You need to definitely understand (as well as monitor) the cost expenditure on the project incurred by your resources and any other items (material, procurement, vendors, etc.) The main reason you need to do so, is because you will be judged by your project performance and that can include cost. If the cost is being alarmingly exceeding (indicating a huge expenditure) or falling behind (indicating fall behind in your payments or activities), then you need to know why is that the case and what do you need to do about it.

• Even if your project’s costs were managed by someone else (say a functional manager or by procurement folks), you will still need to at least be in touch with these people, because your project’s activities will most likely affect their cost.

Hope this helps.

How do you manage value without managing cost?

Managing cost os different to managing a budget. In a project where the resources drive the costs and are flat (ie the same from month to month) you still have a strong impact on the cost of the project by how you run it.

Pick one path and your project outcome will be late and over the anticipated budget. Pick another and it will be out early.

Again: Cost is not a monthly budget. Cost is one half of the value equation.

Every PM is managing cost.

Cost is not just dollars but is the time and people-hour expenditure on the project. Are you managing these?

In my book, you can still call yourself a project manager if you deliver work that makes your client happy.

Cost is a function of performance, time and scope.

Cost = f (P, T, S)

If you are delivering the project on time, within scope and meeting what the project is aiming to achieve, you are indirectly managing the cost aspect of the project.

If a product is late to be launched to the market, it is impacting the cost. If the product or service does not meet the defined quality, it needs money to fix it and impacting the cost.

Thus, in my opinion, you are a Project Manager if you are managing the projects to deliver the products or services to the clients according to their defined scope and quality on time.

In fact, there are many Project Managers managing internal projects that are not dealing with costs directly but indirectly.