AI changing PMO - A preview
Some short questions and answers at the beginning. Time perspective up to 2035.
Will Artificial Intelligence (AI) substantially change the PMO? Yes!
Will AI take over the job of the Project Management Officer? No!
Will AI take over most of the Project Management Officer's tasks? Yes!
Will AI augment the work of the Project Management Officer? Yes!
Will your role as Project Management Officer change substantially? Yes!
If you agree with me on all the points, you might want to stop reading. But you might miss some evidence to back up the case.
I am purposefully labeling this blog article a preview, but I could have been bolder in claiming that the changes are in full swing. Actually, changes are taking place already, but they are still in the early stages of what is to come. And yes, we are currently at the Peak of Inflated Expectations of the Gartner hype cycle (Jaffri, A., & Khandabattu Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, 2024. Gartner). In the middle of 2024, expectations are riding high.
Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence - 2024
AI IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
It would have been easier to argue that AI is used with project management today than with PMO because you, most professionals in the field of project management, are already using AI to some extent. I guess you use ChatGPT and other AI-supported tools to make your life easier. To motivate you to dive deeper, here is a reference to a video blog by Stuart Taylor. In "AI Wrote My Project Charter," he competently demonstrates how ChatGPT can help. Prompting it to explain what a project charter is, he got a differentiated response.
I duplicated his effort.
Here is the prompt: What sections do we include in a project charter?
Retrieved July 31, 2024 from www.chatgpt.com
"A project charter is a crucial document that officially authorizes a project, outlining its objectives, scope, and key stakeholders. The following sections are typically included in a project charter:
1. Project Title: A clear, concise name for the project.
2. Project Overview:
• Purpose: A brief description of why the project is being undertaken.
• Objectives: Specific, measurable goals that the project aims to achieve.
3. Scope:
• In-Scope: What will be included in the project.
• Out-of-Scope: What will be excluded from the project.
4. Background and Justification:
• Explanation of the business need or problem that the project addresses.
• Benefits and expected outcomes.
5. Deliverables: A list of the key deliverables that the project will produce.
6. Milestones: Important milestones and high-level timeline.
7. Assumptions and Constraints:
• Assumptions: Conditions believed to be true for the purpose of planning.
• Constraints: Limitations or restrictions that could impact the project (e.g., budget, time, resources).
8. Project Organization:
• Project Manager: Name and contact information of the person responsible for managing the project.
• Project Team: Key team members and their roles.
9. Stakeholders:
• List of key stakeholders, including sponsors, customers, and any other individuals or groups impacted by the project.
10. Resources:
• Overview of the resources required for the project, including human, financial, and material resources.
11. Risk Management:
• Identification of potential risks and mitigation strategies.
12. Communication Plan:
• How information will be communicated to stakeholders and the project team.
13. Approval and Signatures:
• Signatures from the project sponsor and other key stakeholders, indicating approval and authorization to proceed.
14. Appendices (if necessary):
• Additional information or detailed documents that support the project charter."
(Retrieved July 31, 2024 from www.chatgpt.com)
Exporting the result, you have a template to write your project charter.
But it got even more interesting when he asked it to " Write a project charter for a new project. The project goal is to train it’s workforce in how to use ChatGPT. The organisation that the project is working on behalf of is an investment bank with 5000 employees across 20 countries..." (Taylor, S. 2023). Just check out the dialogue with the results.
There are AI components built into, e.g., Zoom or Microsoft Pilot, which already make your work as a project manager more efficient.
Here are some features from Zoom (Current Zoom AI Companion features. 2024):
You can generate a meeting summary as a text and get the key takeaways in a quick and digestible format by recording highlights. Asking in-meeting questions with the AI Companion, such as “Catch me up,” “Was my name mentioned?” and “What are the action items?” can be helpful, too.
AI PMO - SUPPORT
Let's go beyond project support and consider what AI can already do for the PMO. Here is a practical example.
Keto Software provides an enterprise platform for strategic portfolio management with Artificial Intelligence functionality.
Here is a list of some of the functionalities supported by AI in the Keto platform:
· generation of portfolio and project overviews
· translates into other languages in the respective area you are working in
· generates charts to visualize data
· lists projects that are not meeting their objectives
· lists projects that are not started but should be started
· suggest what new projects should be started
· analysis of the biggest threats to the portfolio
· generates ideas for future projects plus the business case (reasons to do the project).
· suggests steps to start the selected project and does a risk analysis
There are more functionalities but those listed above are demonstrated in the video blog "AI in Project Management - The Future Has Arrived!" by Stuart Taylor and two software specialists from Keto.
You might say that some of the functionalities are not AI-dependent. Correct, but the interaction via prompting is new. The AI enables a dialogue plus generates content. The Project Manager Officer can have a dialogue with the AI that is creative.
Does the platform replace the Project Manager Officer? Not at all, but it augments his work. The efficiency increases are impressive. It is a high-end tool for experts. It is expected that some routines will get automated in the future. What will surely remain is the need to input the right data into the system and check on the AI's hallucination.
In summary, it can be said that Artificial Intelligence is available for the PMO and augments the work of the Project Manager Officer today.
References
Current Zoom AI Companion features. (2024, July 16, 2024). Zoom. https://support.zoom.com/hc/de/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0057623
Jaffri, A., & Khandabattu, H. (2024). Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, 2024. Gartner.
Keto Software - Strategic Portfolio Management with Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved July 31, 2024 from https://ketosoftware.com
OpenAI. (2024). Sections to include in a project charter. Retrieved July 31, 2024 from www.chatgpt.com
Taylor, S. (2023). AI Wrote My Project Charter!! Retrieved July 30, 2024, from https://influentialpmo.com/2023/07/24/ai-wrote-my-project-charter/
Taylor, S. (2024, June 24, 2023). Influential PMO In AI Wrote My Project Charter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlUdj9sUGhQ
Taylor, S. (2024, November 21, 2023). Influential PMO In AI in Project Management - The Future Has Arrived!https://youtu.be/3bjQ88P8wR8?si=Muh7JOuup9pucEdm
The article was originally published at AIPMO.
