Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Knowing When to Quit
In the opening of its Standard for Portfolio Management, the Project Management Institute describes the difference between project management and portfolio management as “doing the work right vs. doing the right work.” Hearing this described, I’m always reminded of one of my favorite project anecdotes that a friend related to me once.
In this story, my friend Bill once worked as a contractor on a year-long project to build an order-entry system for a Fortune 100 telecommunications company. At the conclusion of the project, Bill presented the system to a group of high-level stakeholders to get approval to move the system into production. During the meeting, one of the stakeholders mentioned that he had been involved with another project that will deliver a similar system that will have the ability to handle orders for more of the company’s products. After a series of meetings, the company elected to use the system developed in the other division. Bill’s contract ended soon after and his order-entry system was never used. The final cost to the telecommunications company was just shy of one million dollars.
Bill’s story is similar to hundreds of other examples of wasted time and effort spent due to lack of corporate oversight and active prioritization of projects across divisions or lines of business. The larger the …
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"The golden rule is that there are no golden rules." - George Bernard Shaw |