An engineers saying when confronted with idiotic management , such as those currently at NASA.

The point being that delivering a product with all three criteria met is impossible.

I mention NASA specifically because better, faster, cheaper has become their new mantra, which must irk the hell out of the people working there.

Also often shown as quality, time and resources. Commonly rendered in a diagram using a triangle, with each side labelled with one choice, and a big $ in the middle. The idea being that the PHB or marketroid you're showing it to will then intuitively grok the idea that they can't increase one without decreasing another, or spending more $ or both.

In practice drawing the diagram makes the PHB or marketroid daydream about the kind of interlocking brick they want on the jacuzzi patio. But at least you tried.

As an alternative, you can pick any of these items twice. For instance, you can have it much better, but neither fast nor cheap.

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