I spent a few years as a project manager, honing the craft through each project, sponsor and team. That means I danced the triangle of scope, schedule and cost like it was my job. (It was.) The whole concept, as you probably know, is that resources (money, staff, time) are finite. In the middle of the triangle diagram lives quality, because when scope, schedule or cost shift, it impacts the quality of the work and ultimately what you deliver. I think the “real” name for this concept is the Triple Constraint Theory, but I prefer triangle dance.

If you need to expand the scope of a project (i.e., what you want to accomplish), something has to give. You either need more time (to push out the schedule), or, you need more money (cost) so you can throw more resources at it to complete it in the same amount of time. Or, you could always decide to let quality slip, provided you’re not delivering some life-saving technology. Here’s a scenario to get us out of the theoretical and into the practical.

You’re a builder:

• On July 15 you’re contracted to build a two-car garage for $10,000 by September 1st. (Your client is pretty adamant about September 1 because his mother-in-law is moving in shortly after, and the family desperately need the extra storage space.)

• You get started. Ten days later, your client approaches you and tells you he’s now thinking of adding a second story on the garage to create an apartment that he can rent out (or AirBnB) to help offset the cost of the project. (He’s also excited because it will help pay his mortgage later on.)

• It’s a great idea for him and you see more dollar signs coming your way, but, the initial scope of this project just blew up. You now need not only electric, but water, plumbing, heating, a second level and to meet all kinds of different city code. You’ll need to sub-contract more specialized labor, acquire more materials and equipment, etc.

It’s time to assess the impact of this new scope and present the client with his options.

• If the client’s September 1 deadline is absolutely firm and he’s not willing to significantly downgrade the quality of the structure or materials, he’s going to have to pay handsomely to get double the amount of work done in the same amount of time. You’ll need to hire a lot more workers. (For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume labor is infinite.)

• If the client is unwilling to pony up the funds to stay within the initial timeline, he will have to allow the builder to push out the schedule to complete the job. It will likely take this skeleton crew of workers another month and a half at a minimum, until October 15.

That’s the triangle dance. And I’m pretty certain no self-respecting project manager would ever call it that. I don’t think they’d call it the Triple Constraint Theory either, because that’s kind of obnoxious. They wouldn’t call it anything. It just is. It’s pretty much fact. You can do all kinds of crazy things to make adjustments and lessen the impact of changes, but in the end, something has to give.

Now, forget the garage or the website upgrade or other typical projects. These same constraints apply to life too. We all know it. We’ve got 24 hours in a day. Sleeping 8 hours is recommended; sleeping less than 6 hours is sub-optimal at best and deleterious at worst. We generally work for a minimum of 8 hours a day. We have to eat 3 times a day; that takes some time. We need to shower, brush teeth, get dressed and generally take care of our physical bodies; that takes time. We have roommates, a spouse, a dog, kids… they all require time and attention. Hobbies may seem like a thing of the past, but we all know they’re healthy to have and keep us sane. In sum, we walk a delicate line. Don’t sleep, life goes out of whack. Don’t eat, good luck functioning. Don’t shower, you won’t be able to continue working with other humans and keep your job. Neglect friends, family, kids, or pets, and you’ll eventually lose them. If you outsource house cleaning, lawn care, child care, or food prep, you likely can’t eat out at fancy restaurants every night and vacation in Bali once a year.  Resources are not infinite.

What does this have to do with copyediting? Quite a bit. Copyeditors have to be extremely clear with clients about what falls within the scope of their work versus what does not. Expectations are everything. Getting on the same page about expectations (and good communication throughout) is the key to a successful client-editor relationship.

Reaching back again to project management, we call this clarity-driving, expectation-setting thing a Scope Exercise (or, to me, “Is/Is Not”). How does it work? You get the core project team together and you hash out the scope of the project by brainstorming and listing out for all to see what is “in scope” and what “is not.” There are likely some obvious answers, and it’s super important to document them because they uncover assumptions people have about what it is you are accomplishing and delivering. Then, other suggestions for scope definition arise that cause a lot of debate among team members. This is good; it means you have an engaged team. You can usually iron most of them out together. Occasionally though, you may have to run a few “up the flag pole” to the project sponsor (usually an exec or someone with influence or power to make final calls). You document the “final” scope carefully upon resolving issues, and you have it to fall back on throughout the project when “scope creep” threatens (and it always does!). For example, you’re halfway through the project and the client says, “What if the apartment above the garage had a rooftop patio with a jacuzzi?” Scope creep.

What do we know about the builder’s scope? The builder is constructing a garage with a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment above, not a palace for the British monarchy or a commercial office space. This is basic scope. Then we move quickly into design specifications. Does the apartment need a master bedroom with a full-bath ensuite or merely a bathroom with a shower stall? For security reasons, do you want the tenant to be able to enter the apartment without having access to your garage? It’s all important stuff. And if you don’t hash it out, things get messy. Check out the cartoon below. It’s about software development, but you can imagine how the garage/apartment project could turn out given the cat-turned-cute-alien below.

Returning to copyeditors, we can list out what falls within a copyeditor’s purview and what does not. Just like the “Is/Is Not” exercise above, there are a few obvious ones and there are some that are grey and may vary from project/client to project/client. Let’s take a look at the “Is Nots” first as we’ve covered the “Is” in previous posts.

• A copyeditor is not a ghost writer.

• A copyeditor is not a graphic designer in charge of the aesthetics of your piece or book.

• A copywriter is not an art editor whose job it is to find and insert relevant graphics and images to accompany the author’s text.

• A copyeditor is not a permissions editor whose job it is to research and secure copyrighted content.

• A copyeditor’s job is not to prepare documents and format them for a typesetter or printer.

• A copyeditor is not a fact-checker. The author is generally in charge of the veracity of his/her own statements.

• Lastly, a copyeditor is not a distributor or marketer.

As with every definitive statement, there are some exceptions to these seemingly hard and fast rules. Could a copyeditor also be a fact-checker? Yes, if they are willing and the author is willing to pay for the service. Can a copyeditor recommend a specific graphic or visual? Absolutely! Could a copyeditor conceivably assist with a few marketing efforts? Sure, why not. But again, the key here is that both parties (client and editor) have a very clear picture of what is needed and what each is willing to deliver.

What could this look like in practice?

• Clients, if you find yourself asking your editor to perform formatting and design tasks, beware. This is typically not in their job description or wheelhouse, and you will likely hear something to that effect from them.

• Editors, if you find yourself completely re-writing giant sections of a manuscript, you’re turning into a ghostwriter. Stop. Go back to the client and make a recommendation on how you both proceed.

Now, go forth and manage the shit out of your projects, life, writing and editing! You’ve got this.