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Effective Project Management Without Apps

Written by Paul Taplin on . Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on Effective Project Management Without Apps

If you want a really good project outcome, close down your PM apps and tools for a few days, and just reflect on the nature of the new project you’ve just been handed!

As with most things, successful projects start with well-considered preparation. Here are a few suggestions as to how you can give your project the best chance of success before you open any apps.

These suggestions are largely pitched at infrastructure and building projects, but most of the comments hold true for ICT and process improvement projects as well.

What is success for your project?

→ Establish clear agreed project objectives and measures.

What is “success” for your project? How will you know when you’ve got there? Have you agreed on the project objectives and risks/constraints with the project sponsor?

All successful projects, whether they are engineering and building projects, ICT development projects or less tangible social development projects, start with clear agreed objectives and performance measures. In fact, the more intangible or qualitative the desired outcomes, the greater the need for clear objectives and measures.

The objectives should be project specific so that they are achievable within your accountability, rather than corporate objectives over which you have limited influence. You may need to re-work the project objectives so that they adequately describe the desired project outcomes, and are measurable and achievable within your accountability.

How “carte blanche” is your delegation and accountability?

→ Seek the maximum level of delegation to communicate, and clarity on approval to commit.

How far does your delegation extend? What can you commit to without seeking approval? Have you actually obtained any meaningful written delegation?

Effective project management requires the PM to be able to interact and collaborate across the whole organisation, and hopefully across the broader external environment, without travelling up and down the organisation hierarchy each time you need to communicate with key players in the delivery chain.

The key point here is to maximise your delegation to communicate widely, and not necessarily to make momentous or fundamental decisions. The latter is managed within the project’s governance framework.

How effective is the project’s governance framework?

→ Assist the organisation to operate an effective project governance framework.

It’s important to remember that the PM’s role is to deliver the project successfully, and not to invent project content or make arbitrary scoping and specification decisions. Accountability and decisions regarding project funding, scope and specifications are the role of the organisation, communicated via a project governance framework to which project management activity should be ultimately accountable.

You may have to assist the project sponsor to develop an effective project governance framework, identifying the ultimate accountability chain, and the key corporate players who have organisational accountability for funding, scoping, legal support, communication and technical compliance.

Whilst the existence of a corporate steering committee or similar may sometimes appear to be a burden from the PM’s perspective, if the project starts to experience difficulties, especially with stakeholders, then the governance framework will be of immense value to keep the project on track.

How mature is your organisation with respect to project management?

→ Recognise the level of project management maturity in your organisation.

PM maturity (the ability and structure to support effective project management) within an organisation is a key success factor. Mature organisations provide effective policy and guidelines for project management, low barriers to cross-functional communication (the near absence of silos and fiefdoms), and a range of templates and support material. The organisational role and status of the PM is understood and accepted. Organisational relationships are clear, and the staff are at ease with the duality of functional and process accountabilities.

On some occasions, the organisation’s project management maturity will be less than desirable, and unfortunately, this is an area that the individual PM can do little about directly. The best you can do is to recognise any management shortfalls and create your own systems and templates as you require. You may then be able to lobby for the organisation to accept your systems corporately.

Where did this project come from?

→ Understand the genesis of your project, and its associated risks.

Take some time to consider and identify the genesis of this project. Was it born out of careful planning, or was it hatched as a knee-jerk reaction to a perceived threat? Does the project have demonstrable corporate and stakeholder support, or is support a bit tenuous and narrow?

How is your organisational life as a PM likely to fare over the project lifecycle? Have you been handed a poisoned chalice, or a great opportunity just waiting to be delivered?

It’s important to understand the genesis of the project so that you can position yourself and your team accordingly. A thorough understanding of these aspects should also lead to the generation of project risks associated with the project’s history and climate, so that any difficult issues can be identified in advance and managed effectively.

How much prior documentation exists?

→ Identify and acknowledge all previous project documentation.

The amount of prior documentation will depend on the point at which the PM was invited to commence. Mature organisations appoint their PM early in the project lifecycle, and the PM will be there to see the development of the project development plan and procurement plan. It is likely that the business case will already have been finalised.

Whatever your point of entry, it’s critical that relevant project documentation exists, and that this documentation embodies the intent and legitimacy of your project within the organisation. The PM may have to initiate action to ensure that this documentation is formally signed off and published. The PM should also ensure that any gaps or unqualified risks are identified, acknowledged and rectified prior to proceeding with the project.

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Are the project expectations realistic?

→ Understand the features and realism of the organisation’s project expectations.

The chances are that the business case that launched the project was developed and written by someone else. That someone else may have been an excellent business case writer, but they may also have carried forward some highly optimistic expectations for the project, including the budget and the benefits. Also, consider that often the business case author may not carry ultimate responsibility for project delivery.

There are several key factors that may lead to undue optimism. The first is standard optimism bias, which can understate the required budget and overstate benefits by at least 20%. The second factor is the human condition of being “eager to please”! Organisations or individuals that are eager to satisfy political or corporate expectations may trim off cost estimates, exaggerate benefits, and minimise risk contingencies in order the get the project over the line. The third factor is the preliminary state of the scope and design at the time of seeking approval for funds, meaning that the budget is based on a very thin concept design that would not normally be used for cost estimation. How thorough was the investigation and preparation for the project? Was the business case based on a thorough feasibility study, or was the feasibility planning skipped because of indications that the sponsor government or organisation wanted the project outcomes anyway?

Any unrealistic expectations or assumptions need to be highlighted and remedied before the project gets into its stride, otherwise, the PM will be continually perceived to be under-delivering.

What are the current expectations?

→ Ensure that project expectations and assumptions are contemporary.

If the project has been in gestation for a while the business case and any project planning material may not be current, and circumstances may have changed. The political or organisational climate may have moved on. The supplier market may have changed. Other projects or initiatives may have changed the risk profile of the project.

A brief review of the project documentation against the current landscape is valuable to give the PM confidence that the project is still viable. If there are any assumptions that don’t appear to hold up in the current climate, then this is the right time to flag them, and to seek modifications before the project builds up too much momentum.

Who are the key influencers and beneficiaries?

→ Stakeholder engagement planning is critical to project success.

Before getting too carried away with delivery planning, it’s worth reflecting on the nature of the key stakeholders. The stakeholders should be categorised in terms of key influencers (positive and negative), important technical support, passive communities and the ultimate beneficiaries.

With the rise of communications through social media, a relatively recent phenomenon is the impact of the “nimbys” – “not in my backyard” protesters. Major projects that deliver broad scale benefits can be derailed by a vocal nimby group, especially in swinging political electorates.

In addition, there are broader scale support or protest groups for virtually everything – building development, infrastructure development, environmental impact, education, social welfare, equality and more. These groups can mobilise very quickly, and the PM may be caught unawares through lack of stakeholder planning, or just simply naivety.

The development of a relevant and detailed stakeholder management & engagement plan is an essential first step in project delivery management. If the project involves internal process improvement, then the plan should morph into a detailed change management plan.

Who’s helping and who’s hindering?

→ Informally test the organisation climate for project support.

Check within the organisation to assess who’s helping and who’s hindering. Ideally, all key organisation personnel will be aligned and committed to the project, but it shouldn’t be taken for granted. Moreover, the alignment or non-alignment of key staff may not be overt, and written documentation and sign-offs may not tell the whole story. The PM should spend some time informally testing the organisational waters for any latent internal issues that may arise as the project is delivered.

You may have to develop an internal strategy to enlist the support of key organisation players to help manage and persuade the less committed internal stakeholders.

What are the key procurement and delivery risks?

→ Ensure that the project risk register is realistic and specific.

The project documentation will almost certainly include a comprehensive risk analysis – often so comprehensive that the really key practical risks are lost in amongst dozens of modest risks, or perhaps not accurately scored by the project planners. Often, the identified risk events and mitigation actions are too generic to be of much value, and they may have to be revisited to add project specificity. On occasions, some risk events may have been copied and pasted from other projects.

Check the extent of identified procurement risks and their practicality, and the risk score that has been attributed to the risk. Sometimes a thorough revision of the risk register is worthwhile, with assistance from procurement and delivery personnel. In fact, it is good practice to revisit and review the risk register at every new phase of the project, including post business case, project development plan, and then at the inception of the delivery phase.

How committed is your team?

→ Establish a competent and diverse project team.

How committed and competent is your team? Or have you actually even acquired a team yet? The team mix is extremely important. If you still have the luxury of nominating your team members, then try and ensure that the team comprises a suitable mix that demonstrates real diversity including technical orientation, process orientation, financial, social and environmental. Consider that the core full-time team could comprise a mix of generalist process-oriented and outcome-oriented people, supported by a part-time team of competent personnel representing each of the required professional disciplines. Lastly, avoid a predominance of alpha males!

The role of the Project Director

The more project-mature the organisation, the more likely that it will support the role of a Project Director (PD) who may manage a portfolio of projects each led by a subordinate PM. Or in some cases, the project may be of such size and/or complexity that a PD is appointed to a single project, supported by subordinate PMs.

If there is a PD appointed, then many of the activities identified in this paper are more likely to be directly pursued by this person, but the support of the PM is expected and necessary, and the PM’s role in these activities may not be diminished.

The role of the PMO

If your organisation is project management mature, then it is likely that it supports an effective Project Management Office (PMO) to provide the project management framework, guidelines and tools for PMs. Make the most use of their facilities, ensure your team’s compliance, and seek their personal help in managing your project structure. Don’t be shy in offering suggestions for improvement based on your practical application of their tools.

Celebrate little wins!

The daily work life of a PM and their team can be extraordinarily stressful and unrewarding, especially if some of the elements discussed here are absent. Your project will have “milestones” identified along the way, and you should take the time to celebrate the little wins as you proceed and acknowledge the work of yourself and your team as often as possible!

Improving Your Project Documentation

Written by Phillip Doyle on . Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on Improving Your Project Documentation

Documentation will always be part of life for Project Managers, sometimes more than you’d like.

But how can you make sure it is useful and ultimately delivering value for your project? There are a few basics which, if you get right, will help guide you on the way to project success.

Documentation. Often a dirty word in the modern Project delivery environment, which loves to extol the virtues of approaches such as Lean and Agile. Those approaches can be extremely useful; if used appropriately, however when planning large and complex Projects then documentation will always be part of life. That documentation could be management work products created only to aid the delivery of the project (Project Brief, Communications Plan, Exception Plans etc) or an actual deliverable of the Project (Test Plan, Software Release Note, User Training Materials etc) The key is to produce effective documentation that actually adds value, and to avoid the creation of shelfware.

But how to achieve this? Below I’ve given an overview of key considerations when producing any sort of documentation as part of your Project.

Product Based Planning Approach

Firstly, adopt a “Product Based Planning” approach for your documentation, meaning identify up front and establishing it as a product of the project like any other. As such, abandon the negative label of “documentation” and instead refer to them as “Work Products.” During your initiation/startup phase, you should be aware of every single document that needs to be delivered during your Project, who for and why.

Product Descriptions

Before you try to produce any document, you should first be defining and agreeing on a description of what the work product is. This will make sure you set off down the right path, and don’t waste time creating something different from what users imagined – or that doesn’t help anyone, and truly does become shelfware. Define what format it will take, what content it will have, what information will it provide – and what it will not provide. By producing product descriptions, they can also be used as a benchmark set of “Verification Criteria” to review the Work Product against when it is produced by the Project at a later date. Ideally, your organisation will define standard work products as part of your tailored lifecycle approach, and define standard templates which automatically direct authors to meet the product description almost by default – reducing the chance for issues later.

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Configuration Management Control

Your Work Product will likely go through many versions before it is finalised, and then may change yet again at a later date. The mechanism of this change needs to be understood and defined in advance because uncontrolled change could potentially have a disastrous effect on the project. If the design of a bridge was changed, but the construction team not informed, or the material order not updated, then the project will soon hit major issues. The key consideration here is to identify and define the required level of configuration control depending on the nature of the work product. For simple items which don‘t require any level of formal control (think emails etc.), we clearly shouldn’t waste time or effort, however for more important work products we should look to bring in version numbering as a minimum, recording when versions have changed and what the associated content change was. Beyond that, we would look to record who updated and approved the version changes, a communication process to inform stakeholders of changes, and in the most critical of cases a formal change control process. In this case, any change to the work product needs to be formally requested via a Change Request (CR, sometimes a Request For Change – RFC) submitted to a Change Control Board (CCB). Your organisation should define standard levels of configuration control, and then define what level of control each work product requires; do this by creating a Project or Organisational level Configuration Management Plan.

Quality Review and Approval

There’s no point the project expending effort on a work product if it doesn’t meet its original aim; that is if it is not of a required level of quality. At the planning stage, work out who needs to review and approve each work product using a peer-review process. The approach and associated logistics to work product reviews should be planned in a Project Quality Plan, covering things such as the process for the reviews, what tool will be used, timescales for reviews, etc. The draft document will be circulated to the reviewers for comment, and then once the initial review phase is complete, the author will review all comments and update the document as they see fit, and respond to each comment (were they accepted or rejected?) The document will then be circulated for a shorter second review period for reviewers to confirm that their comments have been addressed, or that they agree why they might not have; if there is further disagreement then the author and reviewer should follow up to resolve. Once the review is complete, and reviewers are happy, the final step is for them to confirm their final approval of the work product. This is especially important for key approvers who are the relevant authority or subject matter expert for your organisation – it may be a department head or regulatory body.

Are project managers isolationists?

Written by Greg Bailey on . Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Are project managers isolationists?

No project is an island.There are lots of components that make up a project, often requiring the involvement of multiple departments.

Take a building project in the construction industry, where logistics, timelines, and budgets all need to work together seamlessly for projects to be finished on time. Just one chink in this chain could cost someone their job.

Without solid communication which is fluid between all stakeholders, such as contractors, local councils and senior management. The success of your project could be heavily hampered.

The project manager is another separate entity, who despite having resources scattered across roles, departments, and sometimes even countries is expected to unify everyone and keep on top of everyone’s workload.

The company has to make an executive decision to improve the fluidity of work processes for two reasons:

1. To increase the speed at which work is completed, making teams much more productive, efficient, and creative.

2. To foster a new company culture by prioritizing the morale of staff, creating fluid teams and centralizing all communication.

When you isolate you kill visibility

At some point in the project lifecycle the temptation to isolate tasks can affect project managers everywhere. For instance, a brief conversation at the desk of the build manager to slightly delay a shipment of timber means that suddenly the site joiners are out of the loop and need to inform the roofer and delay the bricklayer. That single decision has now cost you 2 days and put a team of disorganized people in a panic. It’s easy to forget the grand scheme of the project when a few tweaks need to be made here and there, but the success rate of all projects, big or small, can be significantly improved with better visibility.

It’s one thing unifying communication between your teams but measuring each person’s productivity amidst the tasks you’ve given them is crucial, and that’s where visibility or lack thereof comes into play. Especially if you’re going to manage your project in the most cost-effective way possible.

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Hidden visibility

You might be surprised at just how little some project managers know about the effectiveness of their resources. Assigning tasks to the right talent is one thing, but visibility is all about measuring exactly what they do, how they approach it, and how long it takes them to accomplish a task. Understanding how your resources work makes it a lot easier to plot your project journey, helping to see overlaps with other departments or barriers and delays.

How we know is as important as what we know

Your employees are bound to approach tasks in their own unique way and measuring performance can be a tricky exercise.

Timesheets and temperature mapping are two features of a resource management tool that are key to understanding how your employees work. Timesheets will track employee hours against projects, so you can literally see what you planned versus what you actually achieved. And temperature mapping shows you a visual representation of your resource allocation. So, you can visualize maps by role, department, or skill, with the ability to drill down into individual resources. This is helpful for seeing if any of your resources are over or underworked.

Once you equip yourself with this information, you’ll start approaching project management with an entirely new perspective.

Expect the best, prepare for the worst, capitalize on what comes

In an ideal situation – timeframes would be realistic, budget estimates would be exact, and you’d react like lightning to any sudden changes. A good resource management tool provides you with useable information that you can apply immediately. You can even break down a single process into 5, 10 or 20 tiny parts to pinpoint exactly where your weakest links are hiding.

What if you moved your resources from one task to another for the next two weeks? Or what if you allocated extra resources to a part of your project to help speed things up? You may even be wondering if a new hire could be more cost-effective in the long-run. But without easy-to-use what-if analysis it can be very difficult to see the outcomes of these potential decisions. And you certainly can’t risk the flow of your strategy by chopping and changing workflows without fully understanding the consequences.

‘What-if’ scenario planning presents you with a virtual display of your project strategy, including resource allocation, timelines and budgets. It then let’s you move parts around, all the while calculating in real-time the outcome of your new hypothetical scenarios you’ve just created. So now you can anticipate and prepare for inevitable project changes, which will help you to make far better decisions.

3D Project Management- The Near Future of Real Project Management

Written by Brad Egeland on . Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on 3D Project Management- The Near Future of Real Project Management

3D project management. What the heck is it and why should you care?

Yes, it’s my own concept but even I can be a visionary. So what does 3D project management mean? How do I see it and is it anything new? I’m not sure what will be new to you, but I think it’s really a culmination of several things that are sometimes happening wrapped into a perfect package of everything that should or could be happening. When you’re hoping, professing and being a visionary, the sky is the limit, right?

Seriously though… my concept of 3D project management is both do-able and best practice focused as well as being the building blocks to CUSTOMER satisfaction… which is what this should all be about. Not pleasing revenue driven supervisors and C-levels but rather the project customers we are serving. Two projects totaling more than $2.5 million dollars were utter failures because I listened to my PMO director rather than doing what I wanted to do that I thought would be doing right by my project customer. I won’t go into detail, but it has resulted in my long time motto: “You’re only as successful as your last customer thinks you are…”

Here are the key ingredients to what I will call 3D Project Management – the 3D being customer-centric, efficiently oriented, and best practice driven. In that vein let’s consider these concepts that should make your projects more efficient, successful and customer satisfaction focused.

Start with transparency.

Why keep anything from the customer? Yes, not all customers want to see everything. Many really don’t want to see ongoing project expenses, they just want you to manage the budget and tell them as early as possible if it looks like money might run out. I can do that. But I’d much rather manage it on a section of the status report so everyone can see it at any time. One report size fits all, right? I only want to produce one status report so whether you like it or not, you’re going to see it. I’ve also had project customers who only wanted an issues list and have that drive the weekly status call. Ok, I can see that, but you’re going to still get a detailed status report with key project schedule info including what’s just been accomplished, what’s happening now and what’s about to start up. Sorry, but I don’t want any excuses or claims of ignorance. Not on my watch. You get it… but you don’t have to look at it or like it.

Why lessons learned is good for you.

Just do it. That’s my motto on lessons learned. My own survey from a few years ago indicated that nearly 60% of project managers really never conduct any meaningful lessons learned sessions. Don’t wait till the end… that’s the main problem. Everyone is done… either cowering from a bad project and ready to move on without the tongue lashing they are expecting or they are basking in the glory of a great project and are in high demand to move to the next engagement they are assigned to. Either way, it just isn’t happening often enough. The alternative? Several mid-project lessons learned sessions – conducted as key deliverables are delivered. Performing lessons learned this way – in several sessions placed strategically throughout the project allows us to take advantage of the findings now on the current project with the current customer rather than maybe take advantage of those discussions on a future project. It just makes good sense.

Remote project management and virtual teams are the future.

I’ve been working remotely and managing project teams remotely for the past 12 years and periodically before that. If you say it can’t work well over time, you’re wrong. And I’m a firm believer that if you allow talented workers the option to work where they are or move, you’ll be able to acquire the best talent period – sometimes for less because you’re not requiring them to move – rather than just get those workers to come to you. Most of the very best will never come to you when they could go anywhere. Right now life is so busy for us that in order for me to get real work done I need to work from home without wasting many hours per week driving. We even have our groceries delivered. This is 2018 and most of us are looking at ways to get more done without wasting time and lives away. Convenience is a good thing… but then again I was never a believer in the water cooler talk being productive. Work smarter not longer or harder.

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Virtual teams – with everyone geographically dispersed is also very possible and productive. I’ve managed several successful projects where most of the team never met each other in person. I’ve worked with many clients – consulting and on projects – that I’ve never even talked to in person… let alone personally met. Just email correspondence. Of course, not large $ million projects…but projects and engagements that are much smaller can certainly be handled with fairly minimal communication as long as you use what you are using wisely, efficiently and effectively. Employees and consultants – you can do it if you focus. Employers, trust your employees to use their time wisely and manage efficiently until they prove otherwise.

New tech will drive efficiency.

New technology will definitely be in play. Artificial intelligence (AI)? Yes. Smart reporting of both project status and issues can be handled by AI over time as well as other issues. I think we will begin to see this near the end of 2018 and into 2019. Meetings? I think holographic meetings will take the place of any airline travel to be in the same location as other project team members or stakeholders or even the customer. In 2018 it’s crazy – on most projects – to require people to be co-located. Holographic meetings are already available, but the technology needs more advanced than just a box with a head in it… we should be able to do an entire desk and person or person at a table putting everyone virtually in the same room without really being in the same room. That will be happening by late 2018 or early 2019. That’s 3D project management at it’s best.

The perfect meeting can still exist.

And finally, we will have meeting methodologies that produce the perfect meeting. That includes proper planning and prep, not just calling a meeting for an hour from now to make a decision (unless that is absolutely necessary). Plan, send out materials, start on time, finish on time, be respectful and focused and contribute, and followup afterwards to ensure everyone is on the same page. Most failed projects are due to poor communication and mis-understandings. If everyone is always on the same page – and the project manager (with the possible help of AI) is continually focused on ensuring that – then failed projects can be a thing of the past.

Summary / call for feedback

Most of this – aside from full transparency that I know not everyone believes is a good thing and the strange and cutting edge technology – are really just best practices. Even logical best practices. And I’m certain my ideas and key concepts of 3D project management will evolve more over time. What are your thoughts on this list? What would you add to it as new, best in class and potentially necessary concepts that need to become reality in project management?

AI is Saving Lives – Surely it Can Save a Project

Written by Brad Egeland on . Posted in Articles. 4 Comments on AI is Saving Lives – Surely it Can Save a Project

I recently read about a Copenhagen-based startup that has developed artificial intelligence (AI) that can listen in on emergency 911 calls and help dispatchers detect victims of cardiac arrest.

When you are in cardiac arrest, every lost minute decreases your chance of survival by 10%, so any chance of saving those critical minutes in response to a possible cardiac arrest victim is extremely important. The AI in this case analyzes words and non-verbal sounds that indicate someone is in cardiac arrest. It is able to do that after it has trained itself to spot warning signs by analyzing a massive collection of emergency call recordings over a period of time. In one study, it was found that this startup’s AI was able to detect cardiac arrest with a 95% accuracy, compared to 73% for Copenhagen’s human dispatchers.

If AI can save lives like this – apparently 22% more accurately than humans can – can it save or improve project delivery? Probably. Is it cost effective or cost prohibitive? I’m not sure… likely cost prohibitive at the moment but I’m betting that will change in the not too distant future. How would you use it to improve project delivery in your organization? Well, this is where probably gets sort of out there and it’s more like playing a project management “wishing” game than dwelling in the real world at the moment.

So, let’s play. Let’s look at five ways I’ve been considering – assuming project and PMO budget isn’t necessarily an issue…

Status calls. If AI can listen to 911 dispatch calls and recognize signs of cardiac arrest in potential call in victims, then surely it can be similarly trained to listen in on project status calls and detect confident and concerned tones in both the customer team and the project delivery team. Lots of comments happen during those critical weekly calls – certainly an AI tool could learn to detect concerned responses and probably even detect honest answers and when a respondent was holding back. Change it into a video conference and AI can detect facial expressions and non-verbal communications. That’s when it can really provide some key benefits – though it would feel a little big-brotherish. Like the Planet P Project song… “they’ve got the cutest little cameras hanging everywhere… after awhile you just forget they’re there…”

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Team meetings. AI could listen to team meetings and collect all of the status update information and – assuming everything is configured correctly – update things like the project schedule, issues list, risk ledger, change orders and other key project information with latest and greatest progress and status info. From that, it could probably do a great job of creating a standard agenda and status report to use for the regular weekly status call mentioned above. I’m sure this sounds as if it were going to be replacing the human project manager, but that should never be the case, no matter how advanced AI becomes.

Change orders. AI should be able to eavesdrop on status calls with the client and other key calls and emails and sort out discussions that seem to have requests that are out of scope. Having the AI “learn” everything about the project – including the detailed requirements as documented during early planning – to understand the current scope at any point in time would allow it to recognize discussions that were leaning towards work that would actually be out of scope for the project. It could then automatically create suggested draft change orders for the project manager and team to review and modify before presenting to the project client. With the input of proper costing and historical estimating and actuals for similar work, it could probably do a very good job of coming up with an initial estimate as well. Learning over time would only serve to tighten that estimate.

Issue tracking. Anything we can have AI track on the project likely ensures more accuracy, more potential for help with solutions as the AI learns the issue tracking and reporting processes as well as understanding the goals and mission of the project, the milestones, and the technology in use. Think about it, the possibilities are endless. Would all of this change project management as we know it? Definitely. Would project managers become expendable? I don’t think so and I certainly hope not. It will be a scary “Rollerball” type society if we allow too much AI takeover.

Risk assessment. Just as AI could assist in issue tracking, it could be invaluable for identifying, tracking, assessing and managing the whole risk process throughout the project. AI learns and grows and as it takes in more data on one project and all projects in a company’s portfolio, the data and history that AI could develop and retain on all projects could be invaluable to a company’s success.

Summary / call for input

AI. Project management. Are we at a point where we are ready to combine the two? I doubt it. I think the overall cost is too prohibitive at this point – at least to a point where we can price it in as a genuine project expense and justify it to a client. If our organization is utilizing artificial intelligence currently and we want to incorporate it into the PM process then that’s one option. But to seek AI at this stage and justify the cost of the technology and the personnel to develop, modify and incorporate through training and ongoing maintenance and oversight… likely that would be $500,000 – $1 million per year for awhile, if not more.

It’s probably going to be hard or impossible to justify unless we are looking at something very high end, very cutting edge and very evolving – possibly like NASA’s space program or any one of a number of medical fields, organizations and pharmaceutical suppliers. They may all have the money or the means to get it funded. Your average professional services delivery organization will not have that kind of money and time and resources in 2018.

Readers – what’s your take? It’s unlikely that many, if any, of us have actually touched AI technology so far in our technical careers or project management initiatives. If you have, I’d like to hear from you – please share any experiences you’ve had with AI and your thoughts on it’s uses now and in the not too distant future helping organizations really win on projects… not just “do a little better.” Are there applications for it in PM? Share your thoughts and opinions.