Trade Off: "A Balancing of Factors All of Which Are Not Attainable at The Same Time."

Muhammad Adeel Rana
18-28021
TRADE OFF
In the Webster dictionary the trade-off concept is explained as follows:
“A balancing of factors all of which are not attainable at the same time.”
Similar understanding of trade-off concept can be found in the Cambridge dictionary.
“A balancing of two opposing situations or qualities, both of which are desired the tradeoff in a
democracy is between individual liberty and an orderly society.”
The definitions presented above clearly indicate two things. First, that trade-off requires some
kind of compromise, in which in order to gain something, something else must be sacrificed. The
second thing is that tradeoff is not a strictly technical term – all examples given are from other
than technical areas.
The definition from the Cambridge dictionary points another important characteristic of the
trade-off. When the trade-off is necessary it means that it is impossible to fully achieve the
desired goal. In that sense the trade-off concept is similar to the concept of compromise. And
similarly to compromises the trade-offs must be made all the time. One can argue that every
decision involves some kind of trade-off. It is well recognized in economics, where the cost of
any action is often expressed not only in the actual cost of doing something but also as the loss of
income due to not doing something else. For example – the actual cost of holiday is not only the
cost of the trip but also the lost of money due to not working at that time.
One of the reasons why trade-offs must be made all the time is the fact that, no matter what we
do, we use resources. The resources are practically always limited. The only unlimited resources
we know are the natural resources, like e.g. the solar energy. To make use of them we still,
however, need some limited resources (e.g. solar panels or a nice piece of a beach). Given the
limited resources we must find an optimal balance between their usage that is most satisfactory
for us.
Another way of seeing the necessity of trade-offs is defining a problem as a set of contradictions
If there are no contradictions in the problem specification, the problem is relatively easy to solve.
For example there is no problem in building fast car that is red, since there is no contradiction
between car color and its performance. However, building a fast car that does not consume much
fuel is much more challenging - using current technology, the car performance and fuel
consumption are dependent, and positively correlated.
The contradicting requirements can be of technical nature– i.e. using current technology it is
impossible to satisfy all of them. Some time ago it was impossible to provide satisfactory
performance of the operating system when a graphical interface was required – the processing
power of processors was not high enough. This problem was overcome because of new
technologies of producing much faster processors.
The contradiction can also be of a physical nature. In such a case the new technology cannot
help, since the contradiction is rooted in the physical characteristics of the required qualities.
Example of such requirements can be long distance radio transmission and low power
consumption of the transmitter. Satisfaction of both requirements is impossible since to provide
certain range of radio waves appropriate energy is required.
ORGANIZATIONAL REALITY
We deliberately chose to present the methods with the assumption that the development team
operates in an organizational environment conducive to success. In reality, some organizations
exhibit characteristics that lead to dysfunctional product development teams.
These characteristics include:
• Lack of empowerment of the team: General Managers or functional managers may engage in
continual intervention in the details of a development project without a full understanding of the
basis for the team’s decisions.
• Functional allegiances transcending project goals: Representatives of marketing, design, or

manufacturing may influence decisions in order to increase the political standing of themselves
or their functions without regard for the overall success of the product.
• Inadequate resources: A team may be unable to complete development tasks effectively

because of a lack of staff, a mismatch of skills, or a lack of money, equipment, or tools.
• Lack of cross-functional representation on the project team: Key development decisions may
be made without involvement of marketing, design, manufacturing, or other critical functions.
While most organizations exhibit one or more of these characteristics to some degree, the
significant presence of these problems can be so stifling that sound development methods are
rendered ineffective. While recognizing the importance of basic organizational issues, we
assume, for clarity of explanation, that the development team operates in an environment in
which the most restrictive organizational barriers have been removed.

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Muhammad Adeel Rana

In the Webster dictionary the trade-off concept is explained as follows:

Similar understanding of trade-off concept can be found in the Cambridge dictionary.

• Functional allegiances transcending project goals: Representatives of marketing, design, or

• Inadequate resources: A team may be unable to complete development tasks effectively

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