Setting tolerance in a project is a dark art for sure. If you allow too much tolerance the project can run out of control, if you allow too little, the project team will have no autonomy and you will be breathing down their neck all the time.
The concept of tolerance is used in the context of contingency. Tolerance is the acceptable deviation between what is estimated and what is actually delivered.
There are three major overlapping areas of control in a project
- The time the project takes
- The resources (cost) used by the project
- The quality of what the project produces
If this is an area that you are interested in, hopefully our FAQ on how to set project controls will be helpful