I wonder how the new tools, techniques, and frameworks affect the project management environment! How about Agile mindset that continuously reshapes the way we lead complex and multi-nodal programs? ChatGPT is one of the tools that recently has got much attention!
I missed attending the Northeastern University academic leaders meeting a few weeks ago! Thanks to our supporting staff, I was given access to watch the recorded conversation. Academic leaders explored the use of AI writing tools (like ChatGPT) and their relevance in education.
I like experiential and hands-on teamwork and workshops. So, I asked my Project Scope Management class to practice a new approach! In our short and in-class group project, use ChatGPT to create a high-level Integrated Change Control Plan.
I asked each team (of 4-5 members) to open CharGPT on a browser window and pose the question “What is the Integrated Change Control Plan” to ChatGPT. The results of the question would be slightly different as each team would use a separate browser window! I then asked each team to use the result provided by the AI system and collaboratively elaborate on the results. They then would use their shared understanding and the project management course material to provide a “SMART” and short list of “Integrated Change Control Plan” per team.
Collaborative reasoning:
One of the team members inserted “Write a Scope Validation Plan for ” along with the name of their group project.They also inserted a few customized questions and got different results. They modified each suggestion (made by ChatGPT) and enhanced the results to fit the definitions of the group project. The result was a high-level title and description for their Integrated Change Control Plan.
The other group members posed different questions to ChatGPT based on their group project and they got some suggestions for their questions. They then refined the results and based their group project. They then provided a high-level title and description for their group Integrated Change Control Plan.
Observations:
I already explained to the class that any artificial intelligence system at this point would provide an elementary search result that may be sufficient for writing an essay or a short paper (for high school students). Most machine learning systems need to be “trained” to get realistic results for complex topics. At this point, ChatGPT responses could only satisfy first-year college students’ writing needs. Talented leaders are needed to address topics related to planning complex projects, leading brilliant team members to deliver integrated results and satisfy customers’ needs. Building emotional intelligence into machine-learning algorithms requires modeling a human-like approach. Modeling Humans is not an easy task!
We use tools to help us build complex and advanced products, or automate repetitive processes. Today’s project and product management heavily rely on human emotional intelligence to assess situations, create a collaborative environment, and lead talents to success. Project leaders continuously optimize their approach to align scope, cost, time, and resources while using relevant tools. It’ll take decades to build a trained AI (writing) tool to produce project artifacts.
