What limits there might be to project management will be conditioned by what is to be understood by the term. To be true to form (and its etymological roots), a project must be a one-off, unique set of activities meant to accomplish a desired outcome by a cut-off date. Crucially, therefore, the temporary nature of a project stands in sharp contrast with the business-as-usual of organizations. Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end, even if the duration need not be short. And so, the management of projects and the administration of business as usual are quite different and as such require discrete competencies in, say, strategy development, management techniques, collaboration mechanisms, knowledge capture and storage, and knowledge sharing and learning; such competencies are more difficult to identify, assemble, develop, and synergize when temporality rules.

Depends. ;-) What kind of energy-saving infrastructure do you mean? Are you thinking of so-called smart technologies such as smart grid or smart metering? These are large-scale IT projects that require appropriate project management or are subject to special requirements (public funding, political influence, award procedures, etc.). Or do you focus on energy saving through energy efficiency strategies for buildings? These would be smaller, decentralised construction projects that can be carried out using the usual project management procedures. Or think of the view of energy efficiency as infrastructure, which has to be integrated into the wider national infrastructure planning and is therefore subject to national political decision-making. Perhaps you could specify your focus in this respect.

The triple constraint is the combination of the three most significant restrictions on any project: scope, schedule and cost. The triple constraint is sometimes referred to as the project management triangle or the iron triangle

Michael Klotz Sir the question refer to the energy saving projects implemented by ESCO may be retrofitting a particular facility ,and project management is a bit compromised in these kind of projects is too much involvement of sub contractors.

Rimsha Khalid The triple constraint is a factor but the confusing part in my project is how to rate it among the stake holders plus if the sub contractors tasks tracking may help to sort this factor out whats your opinion ?

I am only marginally familiar with ESCO projects. In Germany, there were different approaches with wind farm cooperatives with regard to renewable energies. In the end, these did not spread as widely as expected. One reason may have been the diverging interests of the direct participants and other municipal stakeholders. This seems to me to go in the direction of your question. The essential success factor would then be effective and efficient stakeholder management as part of project management. Stakeholder satisfaction is sometimes seen as the fourth, complementary factor of the iron triangle. However, I would still see this not as a limitation of project management, but as a focus. In methodological terms, this means that knowledge areas and processes of stakeholder management, as generally described in the PMBOK Guide, for example, must be adapted for ESCO projects and, if necessary, scaled. This would indeed be an interesting, practice-oriented research topic.

Juan Manuel Izar