Mastering Project Management with AI at SKILup Days 2024

Hi everyone. Welcome to Mastering Project Management with ai. I'm Narinda Dwell.

I'm the senior product architect for Prince two at People Set. So welcome. Let's talk all about AI in project management.

So I wanna start off by talking about projects and the importance of them. So within Prince two, uh, the new Southern edition, you'll see that we say a project is a temporary organization that's created for the purpose of delivering one on more business products according to an agreed business case. So what does that actually mean?

What we're saying here is that every organization doesn't matter how big or small you are, you're going to need to undertake projects in order to introduce change. 'cause that's what projects do. They help us to bring about change according to an agreed business case case.

No one's going to invest in delivering change if there isn't a business justification for it. So when we're investing in this change, we also need to recognize that projects are temporary pieces of work. They are significantly different to your operational business as usual environment.

In that we're going to be looking to deliver something specific. And the example I'm gonna use with you today is imagine you are sitting at home and you want to redecorate your living room. Well you live in that living room, you use it day in, day out.

So that's technically your business as usual environment. But if you want to now change your safes, your curtains, your carpet, the flooring, whatever it might be, you are going to need to do a project. So you're gonna have to sit down.

You're gonna have to think about, well, okay, when am I going to do it? When am I gonna start it? And when do I want it done by?

Who am I going to need to help me to deliver that? You know, can I actually fit a carpet myself? And the answer is, I certainly can't.

So I'm going to need a carpet fitter. Can I do all the decorating work myself? Can I paint the walls and wallpaper the walls?

And the answer is probably no. I'd like to give it a good go, but let's be realistic. If I don't wanna waste my time and energy, I'm going to bring somebody in to do that.

So that's what we mean by that second bit at the bottom where we talk about cross-functional. Within organizations, we're going to need to pull people in. In order to deliver that change, they're going to have to have certain types of skill sets.

Now projects are clusters unique. If I'm doing my living room, it's unique to me. It's not someone else's living room, it's mine.

That's the same for organizations. It's unique to them, to their client, to their customer, to the end user. And the thing is, when we do these projects, they contain uncertainty.

And when we say uncertainty, we're talking about risk. I don't know what I'm going to find when I pull up those carpets. I don't know what I'm gonna find when I start pulling off the wallpaper.

So there's a lot of risk involved that we need to try and manage. Now, in order to do that, we need project management. Project management is about applying the methods and the tools using certain techniques and competencies in order to deliver that project correctly.

So what project management evolves is you needing to sit down and do the planning, being able to delegate the work to the relevant people, being able to keep an eye on how things are going. So we talk about monitor and control. If I can see that things are slipping, it's not getting done to the deadline, I need to be proactive and not wait for that deadline to pass, but actually to try and take control of it so that I can mitigate it.

But it also means we've got to try and keep our teams motivated. So notice that we say it's about the motivation of those involved in achieving our project objectives. 'cause I want my team to be on the same level as me.

I want them to do what we're trying to do for the same reasons. And I want 'em to be happy doing that work. We all know that if we're unhappy, you are not necessarily gonna get the greatest results.

But if you're enjoying what you're doing and you feel like you're being led properly and you've got the right environment, the right tools, all of those things, you're more motivated to get the job done. Now, what are the benefits of doing it right? Well, there's a better understanding of what needs to be done and what needs to be achieved.

It means that we're going to increase the reliability of our plans. If I'm involving the right people in doing that planning work, the predictability is going to be higher if I try to plan it by myself, I'm guessing because I don't normally paint walls and stick wallpaper on the walls. So I might underestimate how much effort needs to go into it.

So I need to make sure that that becomes a collaborative exercise. It means that by doing this, I'm putting together a reliable information. I can report on the project's progress based on what I'm actually seeing.

It means I've got better control over the project. And as a project manager, I like to see myself as the conductor of the orchestra. I'm not playing the music.

They are, I'm there to lead them. And I want to reduce the number of issues by doing that. Um, the way that we do that is by speaking to people keeping the communication channels open.

So the idea is that if something isn't happening as it should be, we need to be proactive about that. We need to try and preempt it through good risk management. Now, as a result of doing that, what what will happen is your projects are more likely to deliver on the time they're more likely to be delivered within the budget that you set.

You are likely to deliver the right scope. So I said I wanted a new living room with new carpet, new furniture. That's what I should end up with and it should be to the right level of quality.

By giving me all of those things, I should be able to achieve the benefits that I said I was going to gain from doing this project. Notice what we've got, uh, on the side. 97% of organizations believe that project management is critical to business performance and to organizational success.

Remember what I said. In order for any organization to deliver any kind of change, be it small, be it large, they're going to have to undertake some kind of project. So let's look at some study figures that have been done some research that was done.

Uh, last year in 2023 a thousand project managers were asked a number of questions and this is what we got back. So it was an independent research, uh, that was done. 61% of project managers felt that by using a project management method, it reduced the average project cycle times 73% said it boosted their project's return on investment.

89% said it improved their customer satisfaction and 95% said it improved their risk mitigation. Take that and look at the 96%. That's a pretty high percentage.

96% of project managers said that by using a project management method, they had higher project success rates. That speaks volumes. So we are here to talk about AI and when we talk about artificial intelligence, you know we have been using it in our own lives for a long time.

Yeah, the last time you did an online shop, well that's ai. When you are using your apps, that's ai. Look at the Tesla car and other cars like it, other models are available but that's ai.

So it's been around for a while, but we're starting to see it being used more and more within the workplace. Things like email automation, document content where it's automatically generated for you. We are using it more in recruitment to filter out good versus bad essentially.

And you've all heard of chat chatbots, you know, we use those. If we've got a problem, we have a computer that is generating the responses to us. So AI isn't something new, it's been around, but we're just starting to really adapt to using it more and more in our day-to-day lives.

So when we talk about ai, there's four types of spectrums that we can talk about. We can talk about automation. So we're talking about robotic processes where we automate things, we can replace the use of people and a robot can do the work.

We're talking about data analytics where it analyzes the data for us. Can you remember the last time you had to sit down and you had loads of facts and figures in front of you and you are asked to do some analysis that is painstaking? Well we can use data analytics to do that for us.

Now we've got generative ai. So this is where we've got algorithms that can recognize, it can summarize, it can translate, it can predict, and it can generate content for you. Or we've got the digital technology and this is where we're talking about sensors and augmented reality.

So the virtual reality world. So there's a lot of different types out there that we need to get our head around when we talk about this within project management. The beauty of it is that we can use it to do planning as well as other things.

So let's talk about planning first. We can help it to, um, define our requirements to take our user stories and turn them into a requirement. Describe products help it to do prioritization.

We can use AI to help us do our budgeting and cost control and the estimates around it. We can use it to automate scheduling so it can look at data and tell us whether there's gonna be any conflict on our schedules, what the dependencies are, where we might need to move things around. We can use AI to help us do our resource allocation.

So we can use it to think about where have I got not enough resource versus too much who's sitting idle and where have I've got too much work on a particular person. So we talk about capacity planning, distribution of those tasks. It can also be used in doing scenario testing and simulations.

The what if side of things. If my plan does this, what would be the outcome? And of course if you're trying to do that one in paper, it's going to be very, very difficult.

So by using AI it it just makes things more efficient for you. We can also use it in risk management. So we can use it to do predictive analytics for us.

So we can pump in historical data and say right now, what would be the scenario if this happened? We can automate our risk assessments, we can do scenario testing. So this is where we we tell it.

What if this happens at this point in the future, what would be the outcome of that? Then it's great for giving us those simulations. We can also use it to actually come up with responses.

How should I act based on knowing what this risk is? What could I do? Is there any way of avoiding it?

Can I adjust it in any way by reducing its probability? Can I reduce the likelihood of it? We can use it for real time risk monitoring.

It can alert us when something is imminent, for example. Or if conditions in the environment have changed, it can tell us you need to take this on board. You need to action this now because this is what's going on around you.

And we can use it to automate our risk reporting. If all the data is there, it can churn it out and give it to you in a more logical fashion. We can also use it in progress reporting.

So I know from my experience and I've been around a while, um, whenever I've had to do progress reports, it's painstaking and it also means that it means I'm not now delivering the project. I've had to go away from doing what I normally am employed to do, which is to monitor, control, delegate, and do all of those wonderful things. And I'm having to shut myself off for a little while to report and that can be quite, quite painstaking and quite time consuming.

But we do need to report reporting is an essential part of project management. So here we're talking about real time data generation. So if we're keeping everything updated on our system, it can churn the information out for at the click of a fingertip data quality and consistency checks.

It can check for inaccuracies for us, it can detect anomalies, deviations, and it can highlight for us any exceptions. We can use it as a way of forecasting what the project is going to end up doing if we don't make changes. It can be used to automate your report generation.

You know, if you've been asked, you've got to do a progress report every week on a Friday by 5:00 PM we could use it to just automatically generate, generate that and to send it out to the relevant parties. It can also be quite interactive with real time visual dashboards and that's really nice because there's nothing more boring than just having lots of word on a page. So if we can animate it in any way, we can make it look real time.

That's going to make it more interesting for the stakeholders that are looking at those reports. AI is also very good for communication. It can be used to help us, um, automate and create agendas for meetings.

Um, we can use it to take notes for us. So transcription. So if you've used, if you use teams for example at the moment within your organizations, you can record and transcribe.

It's brilliant. It just keeps a record of everything you are saying. So it takes away from someone else having to sit there to write everything out.

We can use it for real time translation and interpretation. We can use it to automate our status updates. So think about being a stakeholder on a project.

You need to know what's going on with that project. You wanna speak to people, you never want to replace that, but sometimes you might just need some information that can be automated to you. It'd be nice to be able to get that at your fingertips.

We can also use AI to do our presentations and documents for stakeholders. You know, I love to use AI to help me think about ways to express words on a screen. Okay?

So when I'm putting a presentation together like this one, I've been known to use AI to, to come up with words that I think it's a simpler way of saying this. How could I, I say this in a different way. And AI has been there to the rescue and of course you've got your chat bots and virtual assistants and we know that in today's world, all of the big corporate groups that provide us with this technology, they're all very heavily involved in AI and they offer us lots of different ways of doing things.

And it is a great communication tool because it helps us to clarify the message, strip out the extra stuff that's not necessary, and it just means that we're streamlining what we're having to say and what we need to say to our stakeholders. Now, you may have heard of Prince two seven, uh, we went live with that earlier and that is already AI ready. Um, so what do we mean by that?

It means that within that current version we've got, um, lots of information around how you can use it and it it is ready, it's enables you to use it through a digital and data management approach. So we talk about that in Prince two seven. What you might not be aware of, and I really want to get this out there, is that we actually have a Prince two AI practice guide as well.

And what that does is talk you through everything that I've just literally talked through but to another level of detail. And the idea is that what we want you to be able to do is use print two for your governance and for your control, but also for agility. 'cause we know that Agile's a big thing out there and print two is agile ready as well.

And we want you to be able to use AI throughout it. Nothing in it should constrain you from using any kind of AI tools to help you do your reporting, to escalate things, to manage risk, to do your planning. All of these things are crucial within a project environment.

So where you can adopt AI ways of working and use AI tools, um, we highly encourage it. We think it's brilliant because it frees you up to do the things you should be doing and that you need the time to be doing. Like talking to stakeholders, like talking to your team, like agreeing and planning.

So this should be seen as a tool that helps you rather than replaces you. 3 million new project professionals are going to be needed by the year 2030. And that's each year, okay?

We're not just talking about project managers here. We're talking about support staff, team leaders, business analysts, PMO staff. Uh, if we're talking about Agile, we're talking about product owners, program managers, portfolio analysis.

It is, um, a massive industry. And the reason, I'll go back to what I said at the start, for any organization to introduce any kind of change, they're going to have to, they're going to have to approach it as a project of some kind. They're going to have to set a budget aside, they're going to have to put a team together, they're going to have to plum the work carefully and they, they're answerable to their stakeholders and to the community and to, you know, depending on industry sector or to people taxpayers, they've got to be able to justify why that money was spent.

So it's really important that organizations get this right and that's why they need to. And they are heavily investing in project per personnel because for one person can't do it all, as I said, we need it to be cross-functional. I cannot do my living room myself.

I could give it a go. It'll probably take me about a year to do it and is that good enough for me? Or would I like something done sooner within a CA certain timeframe?

So if I want to do it properly, I'm probably going to and I will do use project management with the right resources, the right skillset, and wherever possible AI to simplify some of the more mundane tasks that I would normally have to invest heavily in. Now I often get asked the question, that's what makes a great project manager. Um, I always find this question quite interesting 'cause I kind of fell into this position and it was because my boss at the time, I used to work for DHL many years ago said, you know, you are really methodical and you really organized and you are great at planning and risk management.

And when I look at this slide, it, it's kind of reminds me of that conversation I had a good 25 years ago. So you need to have project management skills and that includes things like being able to estimate how long is something going to take, how much is it going to cost, being able to put a schedule together. So, you know, a lot of people think, well I'll use a Gantt chart.

Well, okay, but the Gantt chart only tells me so much and how do I actually put that together? What am I trying to say on it? What am I trying to show and depict?

It's about good risk management. Am I able to see into the future and think about preemptively, but what if this happened? What would be the outcome?

What would be the result? And I'm very risk averse. Anyone that knows me will tell you that It's about being able to listen to and so that you can gather those requirements.

So you are listening to your stakeholders and you are asking them what are your wants and needs? And sometimes be aware of this. What they want isn't necessarily what they need.

So we've got to be able to have those conversations and engage with them to, to extract the actual requirements. We've gotta be able to define the scope. So what are we going to include within that project and not include Annette.

So if I talk about my living room, again, I might say don't touch the shutters. I'm saying that that's outta scope. If I've got shutters on my windows, don't even think about changing them.

But everything else might be within the scope. It's about making sure that what I end up with is of good quality. So you've got to be good at quality management and quality identification.

This goes hand in hand with requirements and scope and agile. It's a skill. It's about being able to be flexible.

You know, don't be so rigid in Prince two. We don't want people to be rigid. We want you to be flexible to changing needs and requirements in your environment.

In addition to that, we need you to have interpersonal skills as well. You know, you've got to be able to talk to people up the chain as well as down the chain. You've got to be able to lead your team, your team's looking to you for guidance, your team is looking for you to tell them, why am I here and what am I trying to achieve?

So team building is important. Bringing people together. You know, they may never have worked together before.

So now I want to create an environment where they get to know each other and they can work well together. I've got to be able to influence. So influencing is getting people to see things from a different perspective.

Problem solving, I'm not gonna lie to you. All the projects I've ever run have never, always gone smoothly. Problems will arise.

It's how are you deal with it. So how are you going to face the problem face on and what's the solution to that? How am I gonna engage with my stakeholders to find that solution And negotiation?

Let's be real. In today's world, we're all fighting for the same pot of money, the same resource, and we've got lots of different projects going on around us and we need that skillset. So negotiation is key.

Being able to express why you need that person, why you need that money or that time, um, and being able to negotiate a deal that works for your project. Wider than that, it's important to recognize that any task market awareness, what is going on around me. You don't wanna be so silo that you're not aware of everything else that's going on around you.

Industry knowledge is, is really crucial. You know, know your industry, know what's going on in that industry. Be aware of your strategy and your culture within your organization as well as what's going on around you.

Law law's important because if you're working in environments that are highly legislated and you've got um, you've got quality standards and regulations that you've got to deliver against, you need to be up to speed with what is the latest that I've got to make sure I'm addressing. And adhering to finance is important. You know, when we do projects, we're spending money and we've got to have a basic understanding of, well, how much money am I starting with and how is that being drip fed to me?

Don't always assume you're gonna get a big pot of money right at the front. Uh, so what you need to do is think about, well, okay, where is the funding coming from? Am I gonna have any funding gaps on the journey of this project?

And how am I going to bridge that gap? And of course, hr, that's where your skillset's gonna come from. If we don't have what I need within the organization, I'm going to need to bring people in.

So HR is going to help you because they can invest in the learning and development. They can point you in the right direction and they can fill any gaps that you might have with new recruits. So just to thank you for listening to me go on for however many minutes it's been.

Just to recap, we're talking about project management and ai and I, I wanna leave you with this thought. Imagine that you're going to run your next project. What are the things that you wish AI could do for you?

I know what my wishlist is and and luckily it gets answered pretty much every time these days because the technology is there. But I want you to think about what are you going to go away and do on your next project that can you as AI to free you up to do the things that you need to be doing? Is it going to be your planning?

Is it going to be how you deal with risk? Is it going to be how you communicate with your stakeholders? We'll leave you with that thought because there is stuff out there that you can use.

And of course, don't forget, you can always try and look through the print two manual as well as the, uh, AI and Prints two and using it alongside Prince two. All of that information is available to you. Hopefully you've enjoyed the session.

Nice and quick and brief and uh, I'll see you again in another webinar. For sure. Take care.

Bye.