12 Project Management Principles

Stewardship means acting with integrity, care, trustworthiness, and compliance while maintaining a holistic view of internal and external organizational context.

A PM is a steward of organizational resources — money, people, materials, and reputation. You act on behalf of the organization, not for personal gain.

Teams are made up of individuals with diverse skills, knowledge, and experience. PM creates an environment that promotes collaborative work, establishes shared ownership, and leverages diverse thinking.

Collaboration > Competition. Psychological safety enables team members to speak up, take risks, and innovate.

Proactively engage stakeholders to contribute to project success. Identify stakeholders early, understand their needs/interests/influence, and engage them throughout the project — not just at milestones.

Engagement spectrum: Unaware → Resistant → Neutral → Supportive → Leading

Project value is the ultimate indicator of project success. Continually evaluate and adjust project alignment to business objectives. Value can be delivered throughout the project, not just at the end.

Business value = tangible (revenue, cost reduction) + intangible (brand, goodwill, capability)

Projects operate in dynamic systems. Recognize how project components interact with each other and with the broader environment. A change in one area affects others. Think holistically.

Systems thinking: the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Changes in one component create ripple effects.

Leadership is about influencing, motivating, and enabling others to contribute to project success. Adapt leadership style to the situation and people. Servant leadership is the preferred approach in modern PM.

Key behaviors: vision, optimism, collaboration, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, respect.

There is no "one size fits all" approach to project management. Tailor the approach, governance, processes, and methods to fit the project's specific context, environment, and objectives.

Tailoring considers: project size, complexity, team experience, stakeholder requirements, regulatory environment.

Quality should be built in throughout the project, not inspected in at the end. This means prevention over inspection. Define quality requirements early and use quality metrics to verify deliverables meet stakeholder expectations.

Cost of Quality (CoQ): Prevention + Appraisal (conformance) vs. Internal failures + External failures (non-conformance).

Complexity arises from human behavior, system interactions, uncertainty, and ambiguity. PM must continuously assess and respond to complexity. Use agile approaches for high complexity/uncertainty; predictive for low.

Complexity factors: technology disruptions, interdependencies, stakeholder interests, political climate, regulatory environment.

Risk is inherent in all projects. Proactively identify both threats and opportunities. Develop appropriate risk responses: Avoid, Transfer, Mitigate, Accept (threats) / Exploit, Share, Enhance, Accept (opportunities).

Risk attitude: Risk-averse (avoid risks), Risk-neutral (balance), Risk-seeking (embrace risks for reward)

Build adaptability and resiliency into the organization's and team's approaches. When changes happen (and they will), respond quickly and effectively. Fail fast, learn, adjust.

Resilient teams recover from setbacks, learn from failures, and continuously improve.

Projects create change. Prepare the organization and stakeholders for change. Use change management techniques to help people transition from current to future state, and sustain the change after the project ends.

Change vs. transition: Change is situational (new system). Transition is psychological (people adjusting).