A few friends seem to be frustrated lately with local service provides. If they manage to dodge expensive quotes, they're stuck with contractors who never seem to make any progress at all.
And while they managed to find someone who promised to design their business' website quickly and inexpensively, they were rather unsatisfied with the end result. After endless revisions, they managed to launch their website a few weeks behind schedule.
It reminded me of something I came across a few years ago involving a triangle and the relationship between Quality, Price, and Time. I looked it up and found the project triangle.
The idea is as follows: with any project, you can only pick two out of three items. So you have the following three options:
Price + Time/Quality or Fast, cheap and bad
If you've managed to find someone to work fast and cheap, chances are the quality of the work will be shabby and will fall apart in no time.
Eventually, you'll have to pay more for repairs, maintenance or re-design.
Time + Quality/Price or Fast, good and expensive
It has to be spectacular and it should be ready by tomorrow. No problem. As long as you don't mind paying extra to have done and delivered.
Being pressed for time means you haven't a spare hour to look for a better deal. Not to mention possibly covering rush job fees.
It takes time to find the lowest bidder for high-quality work done on a budget.
Even if someone agrees to deliver excellent work inexpensively, they are likely to prioritize the higher paying jobs. Or it might require them time to search for ideas without sacrificing the quality or stretching the budget.
