Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
The Milestone Before Year End
David Schmaltz is a project manager in Takoma Park, Maryland.
A holiday poem to the project management community.
Twas the milestone before year end, when all through the team
Not a contributor made headway, we were all losing steam.
The task plan was hung in the war room with flair,
'though it looked like an ink blot to most passing there.
Intentions were nestled all snug in our heads
While delusions of coherence feathered our beds.
My client's aspirations found me in my chair
Where I'd just finished yanking another handful of hair.
When out on the work site I sensed such a clatter
I sprang to my PERT chart to see what was the matter!
Away to my laptop I flew like a flash,
Clicked open the window and resized the cache.
The options it gave me as I pulled menus down
Gave me the sensation I could turn this around.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew it the moment that icon was clicked.
More rapid than requirements his reindeer they came,
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name:
Now, Vision! Now, Boundary! Now, Dashboard and Risken!
On, Community, Commitment! On Model and Blitzen!
To the top of the project! To the top of the plans!
Dash back to the point where the problems began!
As objectives that before bright ideas fly
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up from the…
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