Intelligent project management with AI
Currently, we face the fourth industrial revolution (because yes, it is already among us and if you do not believe me I invite you to reflect why more and more the appliances you used now are equipped with WiFi and what the data that data is used forcollect on you), which demands a rapid change of the work environment to achieve part of significant benefits in the future. Supply chains, the usual manufacturing processes are being automated and interconnected with other activities within the organization through the use of physical cyber systems (CPS), IoT devices (Internet of Things) and cloud computing, generating byThe way a large amount of data. The most decisive factor in the industry 4 environment.0. These data promise to answer questions that we did not know how to answer and that each time they become more complex. However, every time we carry out the exercise of obtaining knowledge of these, the speed, veracity, variability and variety of the data becomes a problem that makes our work difficult.
Our way of doing things is obliged to change to adapt, or to die in oblivion.
An industrial revolution symbolizes a series of radical changes that influences society, governance and human identity, driven by the insertion of new technologies and ways to do things, with the idea of generating a significant increase in efficiency and productivity. The one that we have to live these days is the fourth industrial revolution, which began in 2011 when the term of “Industry 4.0 ”at the Hannover Fair. From that moment, the series of concepts that were introduced derived in a general interest in academic and industrial research that has not stopped growing since then. So far, it has been a revolution that has permeated almost all aspects of our lives and in industries as disparate as medical and metallurgical. In particular, this impact is changing to the companies that decided to take the first steps and to pave the way investing in digital innovation during the last decade.
To understand the changes that are taking place is vital for all of us. Detailed knowledge of the aptitude requirements helps to redesign the training programs of universities and in turn gives us lights on the new skills that project managers must have. It is not only a matter of having the right information, which also, but having people in the team with leadership skills capable of generating security, transmitting a clear message and motivating their work teams. Since in a world with more information that can be digested, the only advantage over the company with which you compete and the only thing she cannot access is your human capital. Industry 4.0, disparate and often unjust economic policies between countries, advances in robotics and continuous research and generation of results through artificial intelligence, does not generate confusion about the stability of the workforce.
The COVID-19 came to accelerate the process of assuming the changes that the technological transformation had willing for us. The environment is now totally different from what was a year ago, and or what to talk about a five years ago. It is an environment, if possible, much more competitive, where the possibility of more clearly foresees future scenarios is increasingly uncertain. Not only for the lack of information and generalized misinformation, deceptive trends but also for the same appearance of almost unpredictable events. Which derives that not only the survival of the company is at stake, but that the acquisition of new customers and markets, and the same project management is increasingly risky, complex and inaccurate.
Organizations today must act more centered on the client and accelerate their internal processes, due to the growing relevance in digitalization and the negligible pressure of international competitiveness and the speed of change that this entails. To achieve this, they need to establish strategies to change their way of working and continue being relevant in the market and thus adjust their processes, methods and tools aligned with this new strategy.
From a few years to here, vital importance for companies has been made to align their project portfolio with strategic objectives, and analyze the yields obtained in order to maximize the value obtained and balance the prioritization, allocation of resources and assess therisks to assume in these projects. However, both the increase in the uncertainties that we live. Only through the definition of precise project selection criteria, an organization can achieve its objectives.
But not by defining these criteria a reduction in complexity during the project life cycle is automatically obtained. They will still have different sources of risk that influence their success (Cagno et al., 2007):
- Not adequate identification of customer requirements and organization objectives
- Little capacity for evaluation and recognition of results due to bad measurement of objectives.
- Resources allocation to the not appropriate project.
- Replanification and readjustment of objectives for market evaluation
- Not adequate planning or lack of rigor in the application of project management processes, or even, in some cases, lack of defined project management processes.
This scenario comes to demonstrate the need to continuously rethink the processes followed in project management, the information necessary to obtain a clear image of its evolution, a correct evaluation of the value gained and the gradual fulfillment of the objectives. Dedicate efforts to improve project management capacity aimed at supporting change strategies and reinsurance of the project portfolio, will lead to improving the management of the tasks carried out during the different phases of the project ensuring performance in terms of value for customers,market participation and competitiveness of the organization.
A new trend in improving project management based on obtaining data and analysis with artificial intelligence techniques, is filling increasingly large spaces in academic research testing its value and being increasingly included in usual practices of companies (Apple, IBM, Facebook, Google or Amazon, among many others). However, it is not necessary to have the size or resources that these companies have to benefit from this new trend. Scientific research has been demonstrating that not with many resources, but with a clear idea of what you want to achieve and a fair knowledge of techniques, great improvements can be achieved in management.
What is sought through project management research is nothing more than the development of a set of knowledge applicable to future projects in industry, culture and continents [5]. Unfortunate or fortunately (as seen), this wheel already started and there is no way to stop it. The joint work between governments, companies, workers and people from the common is to look for the best way to prepare for changes that will soon arrive. The same for project management processes.
Artificial intelligence in project management
As we have spoken, the appearance of new technologies tends to cause a great impact on the lives of people and the ways of working. The application of these technologies will greatly improve work efficiency and create enormous economic benefits, bringing opportunities and challenges. Therefore, actively understanding and being able to apply new technologies is essential to improve the competitiveness of companies.
Artificial intelligence (AI) was described as “the design and construction of intelligent agents who receive environmental signals and take measures that maximize their chances of successfully achieve their objectives” (Russell, S. J., & Norvig, P., Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education). According to the investigation carried out by Ransbotham, S., Kiron, d., Gerbert, p., & Reeves, M.. Reshaping Business With Artificial Intelligence: Closing The Gap Between Ambition and Action. Mit Sloan Management Review, 59 (1). The gap between ambition and execution is large in most companies. Almost 85% believe that AI will allow its companies to obtain or maintain a competitive advantage. But only 20% of companies have incorporated AI in some offers or processes and of them only one in 20 companies have widely incorporated AI in offers or processes.
The study of artificial intelligence as a source of help for project management is not a new topic. In 1971 Paulson, B. C.. Man-Comuter Concepts for Project Management. DEPT. Of Civil Engineering conducted an investigation into the potential of interactive graphics based on the data obtained from knowledge management, the application of AI techniques to support the choice of objectives, planning, task programming and control of the life cycle of the projects of the projects. At that time, the main limitations was what any of us can have available to the hands, data, computational power, and physical or virtual places where to store them. Now we expect an impact of artificial intelligence on project management.
It is not the first time that the world has fascinated with the idea of artificial intelligence. It began in 1954 when some of the brightest minds in mathematics, computing and physics gathered at the University of Dartmouth to discuss the potential of computers to think and behave like humans. These ideas finally proliferated in the academic world and in the industry promising advances in all sectors of the economy. A common definition of AI is the intelligence displayed by machines.
However, seen from the perspective of project management, can a machine replace the decision -making and problem solving process, which are carried out by project managers? The answer to this question is not a yes or no, if it is not when. However, the literature on both project management and artificial intelligence raises serious concerns about their repercussions on decisions and results. (Satin and others, 2018). Even so, there is a great spectrum within which AI could help in our work directors:
- Understand and adapt to changes in goals and restrictions from the beginning of the project, and track them throughout the project life cycle.
- Understand when it is better to intervene in a project, through the immediate identification of measures that could be adopted (based on historical data) and reduce the time of response to problems that arise.
- Project portfolio management based on resources and level of knowledge and technology necessary, in order to optimize the commercial value of the project and improve the management of the organization’s resources.
- Optimization of calendars for the allocation of tasks based on the information of past, present and future projects of the organization.
- Help in decision making to project directors, based on the previous analysis of all available information. Decreasing the assumptions and uncertainties that must be carried out.
- Maximize the value of decisions taken in the execution of projects. Not only focused on the current project, but on the entire present, past and future portfolio of projects of the organization.
The determining input so that these aid can materialize are the data with which we feed the systems. To achieve this, the starting point must be an organized and consolidation classification of all intellectual property of project management. The PMO (Project Management Office, or Project Management Offices)
Large engineering and construction companies are deploying tools and aid based on different ways:
- Project selection
- Project design optimization
- Risk management
- Cost estimate
- Deadlines
- Quality guarantee.
- Workers’ Safety and Health Management.
However, there is still a great gap between the desire to implement in project management and carry it out. Relevant cutting -edge technology and knowledge are necessary, but an alignment of the culture, structure and forms of work of the organization should not be set aside, which demands an interdisciplinary collaboration and an agile, experimental and adaptable decision making,Data based.
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