TALES
ACADEMY
DISPATCH
ARMORY
Real stories. Real tools. Real project management — finally told the way it actually happens
PMTales — Welcome to our world
Your Map Through the Madness
Welcome to PMTales — a place where real project managers finally say the quiet parts out loud.
You’ll find stories here.
You’ll find survival strategies.
You’ll find tools, templates, and training built for real projects, real constraints, and real chaos.
If you’re new here, this page is your map.
Here’s your guide to every corner of the PMTales world.
PMTales is a narrative-driven project management world.
You’ll find weekly stories, satirical characters, practical PM tools, and courses — all connected by one voice: DB Trench.
Start anywhere, explore freely, and follow the threads that speak to your work and your reality.
1. What PMTales Is (And Why It Exists)
PMTales blends story, satire, and practical wisdom to help you navigate the parts of project work that no certification prepares you for.
It’s built for PMs who’ve survived:
-
deadlines that defy physics
-
sponsors who vanish at critical moments
-
requirements that shift mid-sentence
-
politics that quietly sabotage delivery
-
“quick questions” that eat entire sprints
And for anyone who’s ever written a status report knowing the truth lived somewhere between the lines.
This is where project management finally stops pretending — and starts telling the truth.
2. Start With the Tales
Stories From the Real Trenches
These are dramatized stories based on situations every PM has lived through — too honest for a status report, too real for a textbook.
They're relatable, sharp, funny, and occasionally therapeutic.
Each Tale has one job: to make you feel seen.
3. Explore the Armory (Tools & Templates)
Built for real work. Tested in the trenches.
Inside the Armory, you’ll find the entire PMTales toolkit:
-
project charters
-
PMPs & comms plans
-
risk registers and RAID logs
-
stakeholder analysis grids
-
RACI matrices
-
meeting packs
-
close-out kits
-
creature cards
-
printables
-
digital assets
-
Storybooks - reimagined classic tales as Project Managers
-
Books - From Project Management Rituals to Stakeholder Field Guides
Everything here is designed to help you lead clearly, deliver confidently, and stay sane in the process.
4. Enter the Academy (Courses that Actually Help)
Zero corporate fluff. 100% practical.
The Academy is where PMTales goes deep.
Courses include:
-
Scope Creep Self-Defense
-
Stakeholder Whisperer
-
PM Survival Fundamentals
Each course blends:
-
narrative lessons
-
PM psychology
-
tactical scripts
-
field-tested techniques
-
real-world survival patterns
Designed for PMs who want to lead sustainably — not burn out quietly.
5. Recommended First Steps
If you’re new, start simple:
One step at a time.
Everything here is built to help you lead, not just survive.
6. Join The PMTales Dispatch
Your Weekly PM Survival Email
Every Thursday, you’ll receive one email with:
-
the week’s Tale
-
the Wednesday Survival List
-
a chapter of the serialized story
-
practical PM insights
-
field intel from the trenches
It’s free, honest, funny, and oddly grounding.
7. A Final Welcome
PMTales is more than a blog, or a toolkit, or a set of courses.
It’s a place where PMs can finally breathe out and say:
“Okay… it’s not just me.”
The stories are honest.
The tools are practical.
The lessons are real.
And the humour is necessary.
You belong here. You're among your people now.
Welcome to PMTales.