Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Command Intent
David Schmaltz is a project manager in Takoma Park, Maryland.
Dynamic projects demand that teams not so much follow plans as continuously rethink and reinterpret them, continuously collaborating on the way to value-driven results. Likewise, stakeholders and project managers must appreciate that clearly communicating their “command intent” has become more critical to success than dictating discrete orders.
Communicating command intent is no easier challenge, for all of the reasons stated in Part I of this series (see “Clabberation”) and more. What is command intent? It is not a requirement or a set of requirements, nor is it specifications. It is a “know it when I see or feel it” sense that cannot be discretely defined. Yet those operating in concert with it, just like those who are not, can tell when they understand it and when they do not.
I recently interviewed a CIO who was trying to turn around a meandering Enterprise Resource Planning project. At the risk of annoying him, I asked what he thought he would have if he could bring the project in by January. “I will have satisfied my commitment to the Board,” he replied.
“And if you had that, what would you have?” I …
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Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers |