Tuesday Brief: AI-assisted work is reaching production environments faster than most governance frameworks were built to handle. This week, we're looking at what happens when traditional project controls meet tools that build faster than teams can review, and how the fundamentals of project governance still provide the structure to manage it. Plus, the Project Online retirement poll is still open for one more round.
PM Master Class: Project Management Evolution - How Software-Defined Products and AI Are Changing the Way We Think About the Project Lifecycle
When products are defined by software that ships continuously, the traditional markers of project completion start to blur. In this on-demand Master Class, Ludovic Hauduc draws on leadership roles at Meta's AI infrastructure team and as former GM for Microsoft Project to explore how software-defined products are reshaping the project lifecycle and why the concept of "done" needs rethinking when the product is never truly finished.
It's a useful lens heading into tomorrow's live session with Charan Atreya, where the focus shifts to what governance looks like when AI-assisted delivery outpaces your existing review process. Watch Ludovic's session first and you'll walk into Wednesday with the bigger picture already in place.
This Master Class is available to MPUG members.
Watch the Master Class (60 minutes)
RSVP for Wednesday's Event
Resource Article: Back to Basics - What Is Project Governance?
Before diving into AI-specific governance tomorrow, it helps to have the vocabulary locked down. Praveen Malik walks through the full governance framework: the oversight function that sits above day-to-day project management, stage gate reviews, phase-end acceptance criteria, escalation processes, and the five pillars that hold the structure together. He also draws a clean line between governance (steering and controlling) and management (leading and executing), a distinction that becomes especially relevant when faster tooling starts to blur the boundary between the two.
Worth bookmarking beyond this week, since governance questions tend to resurface every time a new tool or process enters the picture.
Read Article (5 minutes)
Quick Poll: Project Online Retirement - What Matters Most to You
We asked last week, and we're keeping this open one more round before tallying results. If you already voted, you're all set. If you missed it, this is your last chance to weigh in.
Project Online retires September 30, and we're shaping our fall programming around the areas that matter most to you. Tap the option that's top of mind for your organization right now:
| What's your biggest open question about life after Project Online? |
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We'll share what the community said in an upcoming issue.
Live Event (6/24): From Prototype to Production - Governing AI-Assisted Delivery in the Enterprise
Charan Atreya has spent years applying Lean and process improvement thinking to complex delivery environments. In this session, he turns that same rigor toward a problem more teams are running into: AI-assisted code and deliverables are reaching production faster than existing change controls were built to handle.
Drawing from real artifacts built during development of a live financial-planning product, Charan walks through the operating model that bridges prototype and production:
- How to identify the governance gaps that surface when AI-assisted development scales inside an organization
- The difference between planned gates (between lifecycle phases) and triggered stops (conditions that pause work mid-task)
- An "accuracy contract" pattern that prevents drift between what stories claim and what code actually does
- A living traceability register that updates alongside changes, not just at audit time
This is existing PM discipline applied to a tool that moves faster than human review. If your team is already shipping AI-generated work or preparing to, this session lays the control framework.
🗓️ Wednesday, June 24, 2026
🕛 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET
📍 Live on Zoom
🏅 1 PDU (0.75 Ways of Working, 0.25 Business Acumen)
Learn More + Register Here
MPUG members get live access and replays. Not a member yet? Join today or start your free 7-day trial.
Upcoming Live Events
MPUG hosts live events with leading experts on Wednesdays from 12:00pm - 1:00pm ET! MPUG members get access to live events where you get direct access to industry leaders, actionable insights, hands-on training, and opportunities to earn PDUs.
6/24/2026: From Prototype to Production: Governing AI-Assisted Delivery in the Enterprise | Learn More + Register Here
7/1/2026: Why Project Online End of Life Might be the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us | Learn More + Register Here
8/19/2026: Real Project Online Migrations: What Worked, What Didn’t – A Conversation with Ira Brown | Learn More + Register Here
More summer events coming soon!
View Our Upcoming Event Schedule
PM Best Practice: Set Your No-Go Criteria Before the Gate, Not At It
Stage gate reviews work best when the team knows what would stop a deliverable from advancing before the review begins. Write down the specific no-go conditions while work is still in progress: incomplete testing, unresolved dependencies, security reviews not signed off, scope changes not yet documented. When the criteria exist on paper ahead of time, the team builds toward them rather than negotiating them in the moment. That discipline gets more important as delivery speeds up, because when work arrives at a gate faster than expected, a pre-defined list keeps the review grounded in what was agreed rather than what feels good enough.
Set your criteria this week!
