Moving beyond the "Iron Triangle" – How does your team actually measure Value Delivery?

Francisco, I think one practical approach is to define how value will be measured before execution begins, rather than waiting until the project is completed.

Not every benefit can be realized during delivery, but we can track indicators that show whether we're moving in the right direction. Depending on the project, these might include process improvements, user adoption, operational readiness, reduced risks, or progress toward specific business outcomes.

It's important to revisit these indicators with sponsors throughout execution. A project can be on schedule and within budget while gradually losing alignment with the business need it was meant to address.

Thank you, Francisco, for raising such a relevant and practical question.

I believe that moving beyond the Iron Triangle should not mean abandoning traditional project performance indicators. Schedule, cost, scope, and quality remain essential. They help us understand how effectively a project is being delivered, even if they cannot, on their own, demonstrate that value has been created.

Financial indicators and the business case also remain important. They help us assess whether the investment continues to be justified, particularly as assumptions, costs, expected benefits, and business conditions evolve.

I would add another dimension: understanding what different stakeholders consider valuable.

At the beginning of a project, we can identify stakeholders' needs, expectations, and criteria for value, recognizing that these may differ or even conflict. Throughout execution, we can revisit them through interviews, periodic surveys, formal and informal feedback, and measures such as NPS where appropriate. This can help us track changes in perceived value, identify emerging concerns, and challenge assumptions about whether the project continues to address the needs it was intended to serve.

However, we should distinguish between expected value, perceived value, and value actually realized. Positive stakeholder feedback does not necessarily demonstrate that the intended benefits have materialized. Similarly, progress against project milestones or business case targets does not, by itself, establish that value is being created.

For me, the challenge is not to replace traditional metrics with value metrics, but to bring together project performance, financial indicators, evidence of progress towards expected benefits, benefits already realized where observable, and stakeholder perspectives, while recognizing what each can tell us and what it cannot.

This also raises a governance question: when these different sources of evidence point in different directions, who has the authority to reassess the trade-offs and decide whether the project should continue as planned, be adjusted, or be reconsidered?

Ultimately, measuring value is not just about adding more KPIs to a dashboard. It is about using the available evidence to support better decisions throughout the project lifecycle.