Project Constraints
Deadlines are not software requirements; they are project constraints. When attempting to be the first to market with a new concept, deadlines may be set in stone rather than simply imposed arbitrarily. Another project-type constraint is the budget or venture capital dollars available to be used toward the development of the product. The amount of staff that can be hired to work on product development is also a constraint. These three examples are project constraints that have a direct impact on how the project is planned and tracked and on what can be developed by a specific point in time. When project-type constraints emerge, a negotiation process begins for what can feasibly be delivered for any given product.
Project constraints are important requirements to capture. As with functional and product constraints, project constraints also evolve through the different perspectives. Although the Internet program has one budget for resources, dollars, and time, each community is allocated its portion of the pot.
The project constraints are also important for other phases of development aside from requirements. Different choices can be made on hardware and network configurations based on the budget, staff, and time allocated to them. The project constraints impact those decisions.