What does project management look like when the stakes go beyond deadlines and budgets—where every decision impacts lives in active conflict zones?
When managing your typical corporate project, the stakes usually involve deadlines, budgets, and deliverables. But what happens when project management enters war zones, where every decision could literally save lives – or put them at risk?
For Noor Abdulfattah, who spent seven years at Hala Systems managing humanitarian projects in Syria, project management wasn't just about tracking tasks and timelines. It was about creating early warning systems that helped civilians escape airstrikes, while navigating complex stakeholder relationships across dangerous territory.
"You have to combine your humanity with your professional skills," Abdulfattah explains. "When it comes to humanitarian projects, you have to put your mind, heart, and ethics into stakeholder management."
Most project managers deal with competing stakeholder priorities. But in humanitarian work, these stakeholders include civilians under active threat, field monitors risking their lives to gather data, and cross-functional teams working across different languages, cultures, and time zones.
"We had our partners on the ground who operate the service, and we had the beneficiaries, those who get benefits from our service," Abdulfattah explains. "At Hala, we were developing an early warning system – we called it the Sentry system. This system was sending warnings to civilians about airstrikes or Russian aircraft that were intending to strike those areas."
This high-stakes environment required a completely different approach to stakeholder management. As Abdulfattah puts it: "It's not like following the principles of project management by the book. You have to show your humanity in one way or another."
Quick Win: Create a stakeholder map that goes beyond organizational titles to include each stakeholder's key concerns, cultural context, and communication preferences. This helps you understand not just who they are, but what motivates their decisions.
In crisis environments, priorities shift constantly. A plan that worked yesterday might be impossible today if an area comes under attack or communications are disrupted.
"Every single moment you're going to have change in your plan, your team, the situation on the ground," Abdulfattah notes. "So be prepared and be flexible, adaptable as much as you can."
This reality forces project managers to balance urgent operational needs with ethical imperatives. For instance, Abdulfattah recalls the challenge of collecting user feedback: "One day I sent a survey to civilians who are benefiting from our service. That same day, there was a tough attack on that area. So you have to manage your work and your relationship with those civilians when it comes to handling this kind of task with them."
The tension between needing data to improve your system and respecting the urgent realities your stakeholders face creates complex ethical decisions that most PMs never encounter.
Quick Win: Build contingency plans for your most critical deliverables that account for rapid changes in conditions. What's your Plan B (and C) if circumstances suddenly change?
Project communication is challenging enough when everyone speaks the same language. Add in multiple languages, technical terminology, and the urgency of crisis communication, and the complexity multiplies exponentially.
"Stakeholder management is about building trust with those innocent civilians on the ground and ensuring constant communication with them," Abdulfattah shares. "At Hala, this meant not only staying aligned with internal teams and external stakeholders, but also with our beneficiaries."
The communication strategy had to account for technical teams in one country, field partners in another, and civilians in active conflict zones – each with their own language, terminology, and immediate concerns.
Quick Win: Create a unified glossary of terms that bridges technical and non-technical language. Ensure that everyone involved – regardless of their language or background – has a shared understanding of critical terminology.
How do you motivate teams when the work is stressful, dangerous, and constantly changing? Abdulfattah found that connecting team members to the real-world impact of their work created powerful motivation.
"At Hala, this meant not only staying aligned with internal teams but also making sure everyone understood how their work contributed to the bigger picture of the service," he explains.
This approach transformed abstract technical work into meaningful contributions. When engineers understood that their code directly helped warn civilians about incoming airstrikes, it created a profound sense of purpose that transcended typical project incentives.
Quick Win: Regularly share impact stories with your team that directly connect their specific contributions to real-world outcomes. Make the abstract concrete by showing exactly how their work affects the people it serves.
Project management methodologies often focus on processes and tools, but Abdulfattah emphasizes that the human element can't be ignored – especially in high-pressure situations.
"You have emotions every day that affect your mood, your productivity, your work in general," he reflects. "Being human and being that person who is trying to be the best at his work is not easy. It's like layers inside your mind. You have to be career-oriented, you have to be professional, you have to prove your skills in your work, but at the same time, you have to be human, ethically."
This means acknowledging the emotional weight of the work while still maintaining professional standards – a delicate balance that requires both empathy and discipline.
Quick Win: Build in regular check-ins that address not just task progress but also team well-being. Create space for team members to process challenges while still maintaining forward momentum.
When stakes are high and opinions differ, conflict resolution becomes a critical skill. In humanitarian work, these conflicts could have life-or-death consequences.
"Your personal security matters too – you are working in a project that Russia is looking for you, the Assad regime is looking for you," Abdulfattah reveals. "We were in Turkey and faced a lot of challenges to protect ourselves. When you are building a relationship or partnership with an organization, your writing must be solid because it's not easy. If any mistakes happen, maybe you will hurt yourself or your work or your team. And not just us – you could hurt your field workers."
This reality meant that conflict resolution strategies had to be both swift and effective, with no room for lingering disagreements or misunderstandings.
Quick Win: Establish clear escalation protocols for mission-critical decisions. When time is of the essence, everyone should know exactly how conflicts will be resolved and who has final decision-making authority.
While most project managers won't face the extreme conditions Abdulfattah navigated, his experiences offer valuable insights that apply across all project environments:
"Start by building a strong foundation in project management principles – clear planning, stakeholder management, and risk assessment. But also be prepared to quickly adapt and be resourceful," he advises. "Having a clear understanding of both operational and human sides of a project will help you make informed decisions under pressure."
The fundamentals matter, but so does the flexibility to adapt them to your unique situation:
"Project management is about more than just timelines and tasks – it's about understanding people's needs, managing expectations, and ensuring that your team stays motivated and on track. And never underestimate the importance of being flexible and adaptable to change."
Whether you're managing a product launch or a humanitarian initiative, the core principles remain the same: understand your stakeholders, communicate effectively, stay flexible, and never lose sight of the human element in project management.
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