Contents
Why Project Management Matters
Core Principles of Effective Project Management
Key Skills to Develop
Practical Tools and Approaches
Challenges & Pitfalls to Avoid
Reflection Prompts
Further Learning & Resources
Why Project Management Matters
The Reality of Actuarial Work Today
Actuarial work is rarely a solo pursuit. Even when the focus is on building models or checking assumptions, actuaries are part of projects that cut across functions: finance teams preparing quarterly results, data scientists exploring new datasets, IT teams implementing systems, or consultants working with clients on strategic change. The actuarial voice is one among many, and it only carries weight when it arrives on time, clearly, and in a form others can use.
Many actuaries find themselves leading projects almost by default — perhaps coordinating a model build, running a workstream in a wider regulatory programme, or guiding juniors through exam preparation alongside client work. Yet formal project management training is rare. The gap between technical expertise and project responsibility can leave actuaries exposed, and that’s why learning these skills matters.
Beyond Technical Excellence
Technical rigour is the foundation of actuarial practice, but it isn’t sufficient on its own. A perfectly calculated model that misses the submission deadline loses credibility. A set of assumptions that hasn’t been communicated to stakeholders risks being ignored or misunderstood. The value of actuarial work comes not just from accuracy, but from its delivery within the constraints of time, cost, and scope.
Poor project management can silently erode value: duplicated effort, constant rework, and wasted energy spent chasing updates. Conversely, thoughtful coordination ensures technical excellence is noticed, trusted, and acted upon. It’s often the difference between being seen as a good analyst and being recognised as a reliable professional.
Stakeholders, Deadlines, and Complexity
The actuarial environment is shaped by external pressures: regulators expect clarity, boards expect insight, and clients expect both. Deadlines are often immovable — quarterly reserving cycles, IFRS 17 reports, Solvency II submissions, or the timetable of an M&A deal.
Add to this the complexity of actuarial inputs: datasets from multiple systems, reviews across different teams, sign-offs from senior colleagues. Keeping all these moving parts aligned requires more than technical skill. It requires structure, foresight, and communication — the very essence of project management.
Career Growth Through Project Skills
For early-career actuaries, project management is a way to stand out. Taking responsibility for progress updates, managing small tasks, or simply anticipating the next step signals maturity. At mid-career, it becomes about managing workstreams, coordinating people, and holding timelines. For senior actuaries, it shifts again — towards aligning projects with organisational strategy and making trade-offs between competing priorities.
At every stage, the ability to manage projects well signals readiness for more responsibility. It builds trust with colleagues and creates space for leadership to emerge naturally.
Alignment With Professional Values
The IFoA’s Code of Conduct highlights accountability, clarity, and professional competence. Project management is one of the most practical ways these values come to life. Delivering on time, communicating clearly, and ensuring work is fit for purpose are not “extras” — they are central to professional integrity.
Done well, project management reflects a form of quiet leadership: reliable, values-driven, and focused on making the collective effort clearer and more sustainable.
Core Principles of Effective Project Management
The “Iron Triangle” in Actuarial Projects
Every project lives under three constraints: scope, time, and cost. For actuaries, each of these has a distinctive flavour.
- Scope is rarely straightforward. A request to “improve the model” might mean faster run times, more granular outputs, or compliance with new regulation. Unless scope is clarified, the team risks aiming at different targets.
- Time is often the most immovable element. Quarterly reserving cycles, Solvency II submissions, or IFRS 17 reports don’t wait for late models. Clients, regulators, and boards set the deadlines, and the project must work backwards from these fixed points.
- Cost is more than money. It is measured in analyst hours, the opportunity cost of diverting senior actuaries, and the reputational impact of missed commitments.
Balancing these pressures is at the heart of actuarial project management. Trade-offs are inevitable: a more detailed analysis may be valuable, but only if it fits within the reporting timetable. Recognising and managing these tensions early is a sign of maturity.
Clear Objectives and Success Criteria
Actuarial projects often begin with vague requests: “make the model more efficient,” “improve the reserving process,” or “provide insight into climate risk.” Without sharpening these into specific objectives, teams risk drifting.
Success criteria should answer two questions: what will good look like, and how will we know when we’ve got there? For an actuarial model, that might mean:
- Run times reduced by 40%.
- Assumptions documented in a way a non-actuary can follow.
- Outputs aligned with regulatory requirements.
Linking objectives to business purpose strengthens them further. Reserving is not only about technical compliance — it is also about providing the board with confidence in the firm’s financial strength. Clear objectives help actuaries connect technical work to business value.
Roles and Responsibilities
Ambiguity over “who does what” is one of the most common sources of friction in actuarial teams. It is easy to assume someone else is checking a model, liaising with IT, or updating the risk register. The result is duplication in some areas and gaps in others.
Simple tools help. A RACI matrix — clarifying who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed — brings structure. In practice, this might mean:
- Analysts: Responsible for coding and testing.
- Qualified actuary: Accountable for sign-off.
- Risk and finance colleagues: Consulted to ensure alignment.
- Board or client: Informed at key milestones.
Being explicit avoids the common actuarial trap of “silent assumptions” about who is reviewing or approving work.
Communication as the Central Skill
If project management has a single core, it is communication. For actuaries, this means flexing style for different audiences:
- Upwards: providing concise updates to senior actuaries, CFOs, or boards, highlighting progress and risks without drowning them in technical detail.
- Sideways: working with IT, data teams, or consultants who don’t share actuarial vocabulary. Here, clarity and simplicity build trust.
- Downwards: supporting juniors with clear instructions, realistic timelines, and constructive feedback.
Choosing the right format matters. A five-minute stand-up can replace a dozen emails. A dashboard can communicate progress more effectively than a spreadsheet. Communication is not an add-on — it is the mechanism through which the project holds together.
Risk Awareness and Contingency Planning
Actuaries already think in terms of risk, but project risk can be overlooked. Typical issues include: delayed data, late regulatory updates, unexpected staff turnover, or last-minute scope changes. The best-run projects surface these risks early, document them, and plan contingencies.
Building in buffers is essential when deadlines cannot move. A valuation due at quarter-end should not have its critical model run scheduled for the final week. Documenting risks transparently avoids blame when things shift — the team can point back to known risks and planned mitigations. Applying actuarial risk thinking to project delivery is a natural extension of professional discipline.
Iteration and Flexibility
Few actuarial projects run in a neat straight line. Models throw errors late in the process. Regulators adjust expectations mid-cycle. Business strategy shifts after initial scoping. Rigid adherence to a plan can become a liability.
Borrowing from Agile principles helps: deliver work in smaller increments, test assumptions early, and build in frequent reviews. For actuaries, this might mean producing a simplified version of a model for early stakeholder feedback rather than waiting for a “perfect” version months later. Flexibility allows course-correction before small issues become crises.
Quality and Review as Non-Negotiables
Actuarial culture places high value on peer review, checking, and documentation. The challenge is to integrate these into the project plan rather than bolt them on at the end.
Effective project management schedules review points early and ensures sufficient time for iteration. Quality is not a final hurdle but a continuous thread: checking code as it is written, reviewing assumptions as they are drafted, documenting decisions as they are made.
When quality becomes a shared responsibility, rather than the job of a final reviewer, both efficiency and reliability improve. In actuarial work, where errors can have financial and reputational consequences, this principle is non-negotiable.
Key Skills to Develop
Prioritisation and Time Management
Actuarial work is characterised by hard deadlines: quarter-end valuations, regulatory filings, and board reporting. These dates are immovable, which makes prioritisation a critical skill. Too often, junior actuaries work on whatever lands in their inbox first, only to discover later that the real bottleneck was elsewhere.
Effective project managers identify the critical path — the sequence of tasks that directly determines the timeline. For example, if a valuation cannot proceed without final assumptions from the risk team, that dependency must drive priorities. Distinguishing between what is urgent (the client calling for a number) and what is important (ensuring assumptions are robust) helps avoid short-term firefighting at the expense of long-term reliability.
Time management for actuaries also means balancing professional deadlines with personal commitments like exam preparation. Developing habits of planning, estimating realistically, and protecting focus time pays dividends across both work and study.
Delegation and Collaboration
Many actuaries fall into the trap of thinking, “it’s quicker if I just do it myself.” While that may hold true for a single calculation, it is unsustainable for projects. Delegation is not simply about handing off tasks; it is about building capacity in others and ensuring the right people are focused on the right things.
In practice, this means allocating tasks that match each person’s skill level. A junior analyst may be perfectly capable of preparing datasets or testing a model run, while a senior actuary should focus on interpreting outputs or liaising with stakeholders. Collaboration across functions is equally important. Actuarial projects often intersect with finance, IT, and risk teams — effective project managers know how to bring different skill sets together around a common goal.
Tracking Progress and Keeping Momentum
Large actuarial projects — whether implementing IFRS 17, developing a new capital model, or managing climate risk analytics — can run for months. Without visible progress tracking, they risk stalling.
The tools don’t need to be complicated. A simple tracker showing tasks, owners, deadlines, and status can keep everyone aligned. The key is to update regularly and use it as a live tool rather than a static document.
Momentum is maintained by spotting slippage early. A missed data handover or repeated model error can be the first signal that a project is drifting. Project managers who intervene early — by reallocating resources, clarifying blockers, or resetting expectations — save significant time and stress later.
Communication and Influence
Technical insight only has impact if it is communicated effectively. For actuaries, this means translating analysis into business-relevant messages. A board does not need to see the detail of every assumption change, but it does need to understand the implications for solvency coverage or dividend policy.
Influence is built through clarity and consistency. Regular, concise updates build trust — especially when they highlight both progress and risks. Communication is not about dumbing down but about framing: what does this mean for the decision-maker in front of me? Strong communicators become the actuaries people seek out, not only for technical expertise but for insight.
Leadership Without Formal Authority
Many actuaries first experience project leadership before they hold formal management titles. A newly qualified actuary may be asked to lead a workstream, coordinate junior colleagues, or represent the team in cross-functional meetings. In these situations, authority comes not from hierarchy but from credibility and example.
Project leaders without formal authority can motivate peers by being reliable, supportive, and calm under pressure. Modelling clarity — for example, by breaking down tasks, checking understanding, or summarising next steps — is a form of leadership that earns respect. Over time, this builds a reputation for steady, dependable delivery.
Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
Projects rarely proceed exactly as planned. Instructions are sometimes vague, regulations ambiguous, and data incomplete. Critical thinking allows actuaries to challenge unclear requests constructively, asking: what problem are we really trying to solve?
Problem-solving involves breaking down complexity into manageable steps. For instance, when faced with a new regulatory requirement, a project manager might map dependencies (data, assumptions, modelling, reporting) and tackle them sequentially. The actuarial mindset — structured, evidence-based, and sceptical of easy answers — is a natural fit for this skill.
Reflection and Self-Management
Project management is not only about systems and teams; it is also about self-awareness. Understanding your working style — whether you prefer detailed planning or flexible adaptation — helps in shaping how you lead.
Resilience is equally important. Projects can be derailed by factors outside your control: delayed data, shifting client priorities, or sudden regulation changes. The ability to recover, reframe, and continue is essential. Reflection practices — whether a personal journal, lessons learned log, or team retrospective — turn setbacks into learning opportunities.
Self-management also means knowing when to pause. Sustained performance in actuarial careers requires balancing intensity with recovery. Reflective project managers are better equipped to lead sustainably and to model that sustainability for their teams.
Practical Tools and Approaches
Choosing the Right Framework: Waterfall, Agile, or Hybrid
Not all actuarial projects benefit from the same structure. Some follow a natural Waterfall pattern: a start, middle, and end with fixed milestones. Quarterly valuations or Solvency II reports fall into this category — the process is sequential, and deadlines are non-negotiable.
Other projects benefit from Agile thinking, particularly model development, data exploration, or research. Here, short iterations, regular feedback, and “minimum viable outputs” prevent wasted effort. Producing a simplified prototype model for early stakeholder input is often more useful than striving for perfection in one long stretch.
For major transformation programmes (e.g. IFRS 17, climate risk integration), a hybrid approach works best. The programme overall has fixed regulatory deadlines, but within that, individual workstreams can use Agile cycles to refine models or reports. The key is matching the framework to the nature of the work, not forcing one approach everywhere.
Project Planning Tools
Actuarial projects often involve multiple interdependent tasks: data preparation, model design, assumption setting, testing, review, and reporting. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) helps by breaking the project into manageable chunks.
Visual tools like Gantt charts can highlight dependencies — for example, assumption setting must finish before model runs can begin. Similarly, the Critical Path Method identifies bottlenecks: if peer review is always the last-minute squeeze, then scheduling earlier review cycles can relieve pressure.
The aim is not elaborate planning for its own sake, but clarity. Even a simple visual showing task owners and dates can prevent misunderstandings.
Tracking and Monitoring Progress
Progress tracking doesn’t need sophisticated software. A shared Excel sheet with tasks, owners, deadlines, and status can be enough. More complex teams might use Smartsheet, Trello, or Microsoft Teams to assign and monitor tasks.
Dashboards — even basic ones — are powerful for senior stakeholders who don’t need detail but want assurance. For example, showing “percentage of model testing complete” is more digestible than a spreadsheet of test cases.
Short, structured check-ins (daily for high-intensity projects, weekly otherwise) keep momentum. These are not meetings for deep technical debate but quick reviews of what’s done, what’s next, and what’s blocked.
Risk Logs and Issue Registers
Actuarial projects are exposed to risks such as data arriving late, regulatory updates, or model errors discovered too close to sign-off. Maintaining a risk log makes these visible. Each entry should record the risk, likelihood, potential impact, and mitigation plan.
An issue register complements this by capturing problems that have already occurred. Differentiating between risks (possible) and issues (real) avoids confusion. Using actuarial-style thinking — quantifying likelihood and impact — helps prioritise which risks deserve the most attention.
Stakeholder Mapping and Communication Plans
Different stakeholders need different levels of information. A CFO may want a one-page dashboard, while a junior analyst may need detailed coding instructions. Regulators expect structured documentation; clients value clarity on timelines.
A simple stakeholder map — who needs what, how often, and in what format — prevents both under- and over-communication. Regular but tailored updates also build trust: stakeholders feel informed without being flooded with irrelevant detail.
Documentation and Knowledge Management
Documentation is often neglected under deadline pressure, but in actuarial work it is vital. Version control for models and assumptions prevents confusion. Templates that capture both methodology and decisions make future audits and reviews smoother.
Knowledge transfer is especially important in contractor-heavy teams. Without it, expertise leaves when people move on, forcing costly reinvention. Treating documentation as part of the deliverable — not an optional extra — ensures sustainability.
Templates and Checklists for Actuarial Projects
Checklists reduce error in repetitive but critical processes. Examples include:
- Model development checklist: specification agreed, code written, testing complete, peer review documented, sign-off obtained.
- Reporting checklist: figures reconciled, assumptions documented, narrative drafted, governance review completed.
- Lessons learned template: what worked, what didn’t, what to change next time.
These tools don’t remove complexity, but they provide anchors. In high-pressure environments, a checklist can be the difference between confident delivery and a last-minute scramble.
Challenges & Pitfalls to Avoid
Over-Promising and Under-Scoping
One of the most common traps for actuaries is saying “yes” too quickly — whether to a regulator, a board member, or a client. Agreeing to timelines without checking feasibility, or failing to pin down exactly what is in scope, almost guarantees trouble later. A vague brief such as “build a new model” can expand endlessly. The cost is scope creep, late nights, and, in the worst cases, reputational damage. Strong project managers resist pressure to over-promise and instead push for clarity at the outset.
Neglecting Communication
Silence is not the same as alignment. A lack of questions from stakeholders may indicate disengagement rather than agreement. At the same time, actuaries sometimes overwhelm others with technical detail, obscuring the key message. The result is rework, misaligned expectations, or lost trust. Consistent, tailored communication — short updates for senior leaders, detail for technical peers — avoids this pitfall.
Ignoring Dependencies and Bottlenecks
Actuarial projects rarely stand alone. They rely on data from finance, inputs from risk, or systems maintained by IT. Treating each task as independent, without mapping dependencies, creates bottlenecks. By the time missing data or late approvals are noticed, the deadline may already be compromised. Identifying dependencies early, and building realistic buffers around them, is a hallmark of effective project management.
Underestimating Review and Quality Assurance Time
Quality checks and peer reviews are part of actuarial culture, yet they are often squeezed to the end of the timetable. Documentation too is sometimes deferred — “we’ll do it later” — only to be abandoned under pressure. Leaving reviews late creates significant risk: errors uncovered too close to sign-off leave little room for correction. A project plan that treats review as integral, not optional, avoids this recurring mistake.
Over-Focus on Technical Perfection
Actuaries are trained to pursue accuracy and rigour. The danger in project settings is over-engineering — spending days perfecting a model when the business only needs a reasonable estimate by next week. This “gold-plating” is costly: deadlines slip and stakeholder confidence erodes. The discipline here is remembering purpose: the output is to inform decisions, not to be mathematically flawless in every respect.
Forgetting the Human Side of Projects
Projects are delivered by people, not spreadsheets. Treating colleagues as interchangeable “resources” risks burnout and disengagement. Juniors in particular may struggle silently, reluctant to admit difficulties. Neglecting morale and workload management leads to turnover and weaker team performance. Project managers who check in personally, balance tasks fairly, and invest in development build teams that can sustain quality under pressure.
Neglecting Reflection After Delivery
In actuarial teams, once the quarter-end is complete or a regulatory submission is made, the instinct is to move immediately to the next deadline. Without reflection, mistakes are repeated and improvements lost. Even a short “lessons learned” session helps capture insights: what went well, what didn’t, what to change next time. Embedding reflection ensures cumulative learning rather than perpetual firefighting.
Reflection Prompts
Project management is not only about processes and tools — it is also about how you show up within them. Taking time to reflect helps turn experience into growth. Use the prompts below to pause and consider your own practice.
Your Current Role in Projects
How do you usually contribute to projects — mainly as a technical expert, a coordinator, or an informal leader? Where do you feel you add the most value, and where do you notice gaps in confidence or skill?
Managing Scope, Time, and Quality
Think back to a project where the scope drifted or deadlines slipped. What early signals could have been spotted? How do you personally strike the balance between “getting it right” and “getting it done”?
Communication and Stakeholders
Which stakeholders do you communicate with most effectively, and which groups are harder to reach? What small habits could help you adapt your style — for example, simplifying messages for non-actuarial colleagues or highlighting risks more clearly for senior leaders?
Learning from Challenges
Which pitfalls — over-promising, bottlenecks, late reviews — have you encountered directly? What lessons emerged, and how might they shape your approach to future projects?
Building for the Future
Which single project management skill, if strengthened, would make the biggest difference to your career right now? How could you deliberately practise it in your current role — whether by taking ownership of a tracker, leading a small workstream, or refining how you give updates?