Operation Improvement Inc.

Tactical Management Principles For Project Managers 

1. Goals (strategic management) provide purpose; without clear goals, objectives and projects lack direction. 

If there is no clear objective, then everything else fails. 

2. Everything ASAP makes projects late.  

Treating every task as ASAP dilutes priorities, triggers multitasking chaos, and makes projects late. 

3. Prepare to accept varying risk tolerance across projects. 

Projects have varying risk tolerances—some must not fail, others deliberately accept failure for learning, reward, or de-risking critical ones. 

4. The Iron Triangle is a myth (“any two: fast, cheap, good”). While generally true for tasks, it’s wrong for projects.  

Project managers optimize time, cost, performance, and acceptable risk. If we can always do worse, doesn’t that imply we can often do better? 

5. Waterfall versus iterative project management is a false choice.  

Waterfall suits projects with well-established processes and predictable capabilities; iterative approaches excel when essential processes require discovery, creation, and refinement. 

Project Management is more than just being an administrator; it’s an engineering task that involves people, processes, and data.