When projects get serious: what changes after the “easy” phase
From the The Money Files Blog
by Elizabeth Harrin
A blog that looks at all aspects of project and program finances from budgets, estimating and accounting to getting a pay rise and managing contracts.
Written by Elizabeth Harrin from RebelsGuideToPM.com.
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In my experience, many projects feel deceptively straightforward at the start! It’s all about the planning, the goal, the vision. Early progress is visible because you’ve got a business case approved and everyone is enthusiastic. Problems feel manageable, probably because you’ve got a big budget and lots of time, and lots of senior-level focus to help get things done. It’s easy to reverse decisions as you haven’t actually delivered anything yet, so you’re making quick progress. The risk exposure is low, if you need to make trade-offs they can feel a bit theoretical at this point as you haven’t actually ‘lost’ anything (yet).
But then there is a transition point where delivery becomes more complex, political, and consequential… and that’s when things start to change.
What changes as projects progress
When projects progress, decisions become harder to reverse. The cost for rework goes up because more work is complete. There are dependencies That can't change, and the tolerance for making changes drops.
When you're making trade-offs they start reflect the overall cost the schedule and stakeholder confidence. In my experience, the pressure to actually get almost delivery increases even if your plan hasn't changed. People are more invested in the outcome because some work has already been completed.
Leadership expectations shift from wanting to know that everything is going OK to reassurance that the project will hit the deadlines and spend within budget. You start being asked questions around confidence levels and scrutiny, instead of, “How can I help?” and, “Are we ready to go?”
There's also a difference in expectation from the behaviour of you as the project manager. We are expected to use our professional judgement. At the beginning of a project it’s often about following the process to get things approved and to move through those early stages of project setup which can feel quite regimented in the approach as this is probably dictated by your PMO. Once we're in full delivery, there's a lot more scope for professional judgement and active decision making on everyday basis.
How to manage this later stage
So how do we cope with this change in expectations? I think a lot of project management practice stays the same and what you're doing is probably fine. But I think that it's worth moving from being more of a coordinator to more of a facilitator of decisions. In my experience, it's also useful to be really clear about uncertainty and the consequences of those choices especially around risks and risk management.
Communication is another area that you can lean into. We have to be even clearer about what we're doing, what progress we're making, and adjust the tone of the communication as you get closer to the end to improve the levels of confidence (assuming that you do want people to be confident about where you're going and that broadly things are on track).
Finally it's worth thinking about escalations. You need to know where to escalate, what to escalate and how much drama you're going to create by doing an escalation even if it's the right thing to do. So there's an extra level of bravery and confidence in your own ability that comes with managing a later stage project.
I suppose what I'm trying to say here is that setting up a project can feel like the easy part. Once you've aligned the stakeholders, got approval to proceed and put together a plan – that's when you are really going to have to lean into strong project management skills.
So many project managers I've spoken to tell me that professional credibility is built or lost on their very last project and often their past experiences and many years of successful delivery are overshadowed by the fact that something went wrong on some project. And let's face it, there are going to be projects where things go wrong and it won't necessarily be the fault of the project manager.
So I think we need to be aware that there is this change in project management approach needed between kicking off a project and seeing it through to the end. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!
Posted on: October 08, 2026 12:00 AM |
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Comments (3)
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Pallavi Gupta
Project Manager| Milacron
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
Interesting perspective. I have always enjoyed the planning phase because it is where the team comes together, the governance structure takes shape, and there is a shared excitement about what we are setting out to accomplish.
There is often a period after that where project management can feel almost effortless because the team is executing and the right governance and communication routines are working. Then, inevitably, timelines begin to slip, dependencies tighten, and several small delays start converging. That is when the project manager’s role becomes more active again.
For me, trust is what makes the difference in those moments. The relationships built during planning and the forums established for visibility and alignment determine how effectively the team can work through issues later. I also view escalation a little differently. When escalation paths are part of the governance structure from the beginning, escalation feels less like “drama” and more like the normal way the project brings forward decisions, risks, and support needs.
The project-management approach absolutely changes as delivery progresses. Sometimes the framework can do more of the work, while at other times the project manager needs to step in more directly to facilitate decisions and rebuild momentum.
Thanks for sharing. We should be a good master during project implementation.
@Pallavi, trust is really important, we agree there. Thanks for your comment!
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