Nowadays we are witnessing Fourth Industrial Revolution hitting all industries on the market. Automation to increase efficiency and reduce costs seems to be permanent element of contemporary world. Why project management would be different? What we can expect in very near future? Will be there room for human PMs in next 5 to 10 years?
If you can’t beat them, join them
What is the 4th Industrial Revolution about? In the past, automation was focusing on replacing manual work done by human workers with machines and robots causing mass reduction in blue collars world. Currently with help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) automation is entering intellectual work area. White collars start to be concerned about their future role on the market.
What would be the best option for project manager to prepare for incoming change? It is like a train that you cannot stop thus it would be best option to get on it, otherwise you will be left on the platform. Let’s learn more about automation in project management area.
To use the strengths of our company
A little company called Warner Bros produced in 1927 The Jazz Singer sound movie that was a stunning commercial success. Although used sound-on-disk technology had a lot of weaknesses it was more than enough to bit silent movies competitors and became a leading movie company in Hollywood. Warner Bros position was strengthened in 1928 by producing Lights of New York, first fully sound synchronized movie.
Is it possible nowadays for small or start up IT company to repeat Warner Bros business success by introducing breakthrough project manager automation to the market? It is possible but highly unlikely. Automation creates the biggest opportunities for biggest companies with substantial projects portfolios because of knowledge base. The more data you can use, the longest track record, the better results you can get in automation.
Fig 1. Automation implementation and impact
Automation implementation step one. Knowledge Management
Replacement of work done by human hands is relatively simple. Automation process needs to copy the human’s hands movement. On top of that automatic process can be more efficient due to lack of human’s limitations related to our physical build. But intellectual work is different. How to copy the work of human’s brain? To execute the intellectual tasks humans make decisions based on the knowledge base they collected during education and professional career. AI can learn and build its own knowledge database but starting from scratch is not an option. Until your AI would learn proper behavior it would create so many disasters in project management area that whole automation project would be canceled before AI would reach relevant level of competence. So, there is only one option to make it successful from business and shareholders perspective. Company needs to implement proper knowledge management. There are however some challenges in data quality or availability. Too much data or too less also can be a problem. The first step in preparations for applying automation would be data cleaning and structuring.
Let’s transform data into knowledge. Business Intelligence
We have knowledge gathering and structuring processes in place, data quality was improved, and we gathered relevant amount of data. Now it is time to use Business Intelligence tools. The second step in implementation of automation would be usage of BI for transferring data in useful knowledge.
Revealing of business rules, identifying risks factors and its impacts on project schedule, scope, quality and budget, quantifying workloads and calculating average timelines should be achieved in that phase. Appropriate tools should be selected. After AI implementation data can be collected and analyzed automatically as a part of AI machine learning process.
Final step. Project manager’s tasks executed by AI
It’s time for making decisions. What project management tasks would be automated? This stage can be phased. The recommended approach would be to list all PM’s tasks and categorize them according to the criteria of easiness to automate and impact on efficiency/profit.
Let’s have a look on below examples of project managers tasks allocated to different project management phases that could be fully automated:
- Project starting phase:
- Creation of project plans, project initiation documents and risk logs
- Initial setup of tools used by the company for project management
- Generation of requests for resources
- Procurement orders generation.
- Project execution phase:
- Project monitoring
- Project reporting including highlight reports for clients and financials reporting
- Budget management
- Meetings scheduling and stakeholder management
- Re-planning
- Resource management.
- Project closure phase:
- Resources releasing
- Tools closing
- Financial end report issuing
- Archiving
- Stakeholder’s communication and lessons learned sharing.
With reference to AI developments in image recognition and understanding of spoken language, AI could potentially replace PMs in facilitating meeting and minutes preparations. AI can work 24/7 without any negative impacts on efficiency. It could monitor more parameters then humans for example continuously evaluate performance of project team members. If a project is a part of bigger program AI could easily propagate changes implemented in project plans into general program plan negotiating and managing limited resource pools for getting all possible synergies and efficiencies.
What would be the PM’s role after implementing automation? It is possible that project manager in near future will focus on monitoring AI, solving problems and correcting AI errors. PM can work also as human face in contacts with customers (until AI company will be linked with customer AI to negotiate project’s related issues fully automatically).
Automation = Profits
Depending on the industry implementation of automation allows for releasing form 30-69% of total effort in companies[1]. It means that some roles could be automated in 100% when others only partially.
Automation has substantial impact on company profitability what is clearly visible for shareholders. In terms of project manager role automation, the released effort can be transferred into profit in many ways. Company gains increased efficiency per employee that can be used for generating additional business with the same pool of resources. When business opportunities are limited company can decrease costs by cutting down redundant resources.
Another option for the company is to spend released time for skills and knowledge of staff by organizing additional training or self-studies that can have impact on the company’s positioning on the market in the future.
Automation of project management can lower costs of projects execution allowing for preparation of more competitive offers strengthening company’s position on IT services market. On the other hand, not starting work on automation can limit competitiveness and eliminate some companies from the market.
Finally, automation of project manager role can be sold as a product or service. The company that will introduce automation cutting-edge services can easily become unchallenged market leader.
Opportunity or threat?
Unconscious bias can influence our evaluation of automation role and impact. Shareholders and senior management will identify automation as opportunity with substantial impact company’s profitability and market position. In that case I would wholeheartedly recommend taking leading role in automation implementation in your organization.
Becoming automation subject matter expert can help you survive and develop skills that may be mandatory in very near future. Maybe easiness to co-operate with AI will be the next most wanted competence on the job market?
[1] Creig Lamb, Matt Lo, Automation Across the Nation: Understanding the potential impacts of technological trends across Canada Report, Bookfiled Institute, June 2017
Manager and expert with 20 years of professional career in IT, Project Management, Sales, Product Development and Process Management. Speaking the same language with business and IT. Huge fan of Business Intelligence, Knowledge Management and Artificial Intelligence. Currently working for Atos, one of the global leading IT companies, as Portfolio Manager responsible for management of customer’s projects portfolio. Sailing and Martial Arts enthusiast