The forever six weeks to the end

To my self-deprecating amusement (or bemusement as project management PhD candidate) my thesis submission remains six weeks away. It has been such for about six months. That is/was fine within reason. The iron triangle of project management helps explain.

In my cohort of project management PhD candidates, the fourth year of three (or seventh year of six if part-time) is not unusual. We are all project management scholars so this might seem odd, but it highlights a project management reality: the iron triangle or the time, cost, quality trap. Such theory explains that we can be quick, we can be cost efficient, and we can produce the highest quality, but invariably we cannot do all three. Beware of any endeavour where someone demands all be the priority.

A PhD is a process of transformation and the production of an output. Each PhD is therefore highly novel (if not unique). Learning is also happening on the go. In iron triangle terms think of each corner as a priority. If you want this research done quicker, get someone in who has done it before or get more people doing it all at once. However, that will cost more and leaves nothing for training or otherwise investing in the future. If you want this research done cheaper, find a boiler-plate answer–or in 2026 ask ChatGPT a few questions or post a few questions on LinkedIn, or ask an expert who does it their way–and just apply that. However, that will be unlikely to convince the most critical or academic eyes and it sacrifices novelty and possibility of contributing something new. Therein, if you want something done better, with care, attention, slack enough to allow for rework or second thoughts, let it sit within the controlled environment where contingency is allowed for at the end. Such is the case for a PhD: costed quality, allowing for more time, as the iron triangle explains.

If you are a PhD in your second or third year of three, know that there are plenty of things yet waiting for you to think through. That is how it is supposed to be. I might come back and list some of my late-found challenges at a future date, but that will have been my list. Right now I have other (more pressing) things to attend to. In any case, I doubt it will be the same list for you. However, this also prompts a final and perhaps incoherent statement to the above, yet also true. Namely: know also when to rein all in, and focus on finishing. That final point has been my recent dilemma, and one perhaps also awaiting you.

…to be continued