Artificial Intelligence and Project Management
Categories:
project manager,
people skills,
soft skills,
communication,
Management,
people,
Leadership
Categories: project manager, people skills, soft skills, communication, Management, people, Leadership
| A recent Gartner reports* state that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will assume 80% of all project management tasks by 2030. I was giving this some thought and the thing that stood out for me is that those tasks that can be automated should be automated, and using it will assist the role of the project manager immensely when used appropriately. However, I am always reminded that project management is not just about tools and techniques but about people. I do not believe AI will provide the best solution for managing people and that activity will always need a project manager with superior leadership, communication and team development skills. This is particularly important on complex projects. AI can free up project managers from the more mundane technical tasks and allow them to focus on, and develop, their people skills and their own personal development. I think AI should threaten those project managers who do not have good 'people skills' as it is imaginable that AI could successfully manage low complexity and smaller projects completely. I can definitely see small projects that do not require much team building, have few stakeholder, or do not require leadership being completely lead by a task oriented AI. So, in summary I believe AI is a great tool and can help in many ways but for large, complex and people centered projects it should best be used as an ancillary tool to a well-qualified and experienced project manager. What are you thoughts? *Link to the report here https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-03-20-gartner-says-80-percent-of-today-s-project-management |
Why You Need to Understand Project Management Maturity
| In the same way that project management practitioners can be described as beginner, intermediate or advanced, organizations can also be described as having low, medium, or high levels of project management. These levels of project management reflect the level of organizational project management maturity (OPMM). Knowing the level of OPMM your organisation is currently at, and also knowing where it should be is essential to help you reach your organisational goals and strategy through better delivery of portfolios, programmes, and projects. An OPMM assessment will look at all aspects of the way you run portfolios, programmes and projects within the organisation including:
A good assessment will look at all the processes and practices you have, evidence of them being used (or not), and also interview users and key stakeholders either in a workshop or face to face interviews. Once the evidence gathering is completed they can provide scores for individual business units, an organisational score (usually 0-5), benchmarking against others in the industry and a set of prioritized (and achievable) recommendations to move you towards your goal. A good OPMM assessment provides a benchmark for your future efforts. It lets you know that you are progressing in the right areas. Without it you simply don’t know how well you are doing with your improvement efforts. It’s a good idea to commit to regular OPMM assessments every 18-24 months to check how you are progressing, and to reprioritize recommendations. Don’t assume that all organizations must be at the top level of maturity, it’s important to consider that the level of OPMM that is desirable for any organisation is directly related to the size, cost, length, complexity and industry of the projects being undertaken. Organizations undertaking highly complex, long term, expensive projects should aim to have a higher level of project management maturity, while organizations and small businesses routinely undertaking short, low cost, low complexity projects may be perfectly suited to a lesser level of project management maturity. Using an external consultant to assess your level of project management maturity and make recommendations has a number of benefits:
There are several good commercial models available in the market and the benefit of using one of these is that it allows you to more easily benchmark your organisation against others in their database. I am experienced in using the P3M3, OPM3, HSI 4Q model and bespoke OPMM assessment models and if you have any questions about any aspect of organizational project management maturity please do not hesitate to contact me. If you have any questions, comments or feedback please feel free to email me. |
Rapid Fire Solutions for the Most Common PM Issues
| Here are my rapid fire suggestions for some of the most common issues a project manager will face: Poor planning and estimating – Start with a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and then involve those people who are actually going to do the work Poor change control – document everything Poor scope definition – only do what is fully defined Poor communication – try and see through the others person eyes Demanding customer – listen better, document everything Stalled career – invest in training or experience for yourself Surprises keep slowing down the project – take time to do a risk register Lack of clarity about who does what – get everyone to contribute to and agree on a RACI chart No time for project closure – include it in the project scope of works and allocate time and cost to it Poor team morale – karaoke evening 😊 |
It's all about the people!
| I'm not sure what inspired to me to write this post. It may have been seeing yet another advertisement pop-up for a project management tool guaranteed to deliver successful projects. It may have been a project manager telling me that their latest process was so good it practically guaranteed project success. It might even have been the CEO of a company telling me that they were sure that as soon as everyone got a certification that all their project worries would be solved. It may even have been some flashbacks from my own early days as a project manager over 20 years ago. The point I’m trying to make is that amongst all the constant noise about processes, tools, templates, certifications and standards in the profession of project management we seem to overlook, or simply forget, the incredibly obvious fact that people deliver projects for other people. People. People like you and me. Individuals who get together to make up a team. Customers who accept the deliverable are people too. Stakeholders who can affect or be affected by the project are people as well. Are you beginning to see my point yet? It seems as soon as we call some endeavour a project we label it as some kind of mechanistic process that doesn’t need human interaction to succeed. Sometimes it seems that too many project managers absolve themselves of the need to have the ability to interact with people because they can rely on a spreadsheet, or report, or template, or piece of software that will somehow ‘manage’ the project. It seems that we lose sight of the essential foundational concepts of management. Management (and leadership) is about a person, or a group of people, managing or leading another person, or group of people. In order for this to be successful relationships must be formed. Successful relationships require open communication, trust and mutual understanding. I’m not saying that processes, tools, templates, certification and standards aren’t important. They are. They are what people use to help and focus their efforts in building relationships. In fact, every tool, technique, process, certification or standard you are considering using should only be used if it helps nurture and sustain real relationships with people. That was always the original intent. But, sometimes it seems that we have given too much importance to these things and lost sight of what really matters. So, the next time you are considering any sort of process, tool or technique, ask yourself this question – how does this help me build relationships with my project team, customer or stakeholders? If you can’t answer that then you probably shouldn’t be using it. The most successful project managers I have ever had the opportunity to work with are those with the greatest people skills. The funny thing is that this doesn’t just apply to project managers. Substitute project manager for politician, CEO, community leader or family member and the result is the same. In New Zealand, where I live, there is a Maori proverb that goes: He aha te mea nui o te ao Which translates to: What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people, it is the people, it is the people I am probably doing the proverb a huge disservice by using it in this context, but the intent is what matters. It is people that are most important. Don’t lose sight of the fact that projects need people, affect people and change people. Use the tools, techniques, processes, templates, certifications and standards to help you do this and I am pretty sure you will be a more successful project manager. In fact, for the past few years, whenever a project manager asks me what they should do to be better at their job I simply say "Work on your people skills". As always, I welcome your comments. |
