Dr. N.Y. MULONGO.

, PhD
Senior Lecturer & Senior Researcher
Projects, regardless of their size, have to work with limited resources in dynamic
environments. Hence, Managers are asked to assign production facilities over time to
parallel activities respecting operational constraints and deadlines while keeping
resource costs as low as possible.
Project management is always challenging, and especially top management always
struggles to know the real status of the project. Most of projects do not meet project
objectives and most of the time they realize once they consume all of their project
budget, timeline, and resources. Results – unhappy stakeholders, loss in business.
Throughout project life-cycle, any project encounters a series of risks and uncertainties
that can cause a failure or sometimes it can create positive risks too. The team especially
project manager and top management need to regularly assess and respond to all the
risks they identify based on their experience, knowledge and available tools. The
challenge with the ongoing risk evaluation can turn into a disaster if the team fails to
register new risks on-time and escalate the same. Hence, the need of using intelligent
tools to effectively manage projects to completion.
Ever since humans have had people and projects to manage, we’ve had challenges
keeping the projects on time, on budget, and people on task. The field and industry
of project management emerged as a way to manage a collection of people towards
an end goal. For project managers, it is commonplace to be managing not only
multiple teams, but also multiple projects at the same time. These projects often must
come together towards a bigger goal. For a field that is known for having lots of
moving parts, finding ways to make the process easier and more efficient is a
primary goal. By creating a smoother process, project managers are able to turn out
more reliable outcomes and can even help coach individual employees more
effectively. Artificial intelligence is increasingly finding its way into project
management tools and technology to handle everything from scheduling to
analyzing the patterns of a working team and offering suggestions.
With this knowledge in mind, preparing and cleaning data is something that will
become more prevalent in the project process. This step is often the most labour-
intensive part of a project, as most businesses do not have the data ready in the
correct formats—thus, it may take a while for data analysts to complete this essential
step.

To summarize, it can take much longer to build the right data infrastructure and
prepare the data to be used. This is a big consideration for project managers as they
manage teams and think about project scope and project completion.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a core role in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
(Industry 4.0), i.e., the digitalization era, wherein intelligent systems and
technologies are used to create an active connection between the physical and
virtual (digital) worlds. AI denotes the science and engineering of creating
intelligent machines that exhibit reasoning, learning, knowledge, communication,
perception, planning, and the ability to move and operate objects. It has several
benefits that have been widely documented in the literature. For in- stance, it can use
sophisticated algorithms to “learn” from “big” data, and then use the knowledge
gained to assist industry/practice. Moreover, AI provides vast opportunities for
significant productivity improvements via analyzing large volumes of data quickly
and accurately
Intelligent Project Management Assistance.
AI systems are able to effectively handle scheduling, reminders, and follow-ups to
eliminate the need for human input. This is one of many effective ways that these
systems are capable of saving humans time on their various efforts by helping to
make sure that nothing is overlooked.
Studies have shown that project managers spend more than half of their time on
administrative tasks such as dealing with check-ins and managing updates. AI bots
are capable of stepping up and handling these less intensive tasks for the project
manager with current systems cutting time spent on busywork in half. This is a
significant timesaver, which allows for project managers to focus more on the
complex processes behind their management strategy. It also enables them to spend
more time focusing on their employees, which can in turn help them to empower
their employees and find further efficiencies
Predictive Analytics for Project Management
From a business efficiency perspective, AI is an obvious asset because of its ability
to manage complex analytics. This allows a system to observe the way that a project
is moving and make educated predictions about the future of the project. While
humans are more likely to get caught focusing on their own problems and may
overlook certain shifts in the project because they are not seeing them directly, AI
has the ability to watch all of the moving parts and then make valuable predictions
based off of what it is seeing. AI is capable of monitoring budgets and scheduling,
and over time it can learn to identify potential impacts to these processes.
Risk or uncertainty is one of the inherent aspects of projects. The proactive
management of risk is one of the most important roles of project management. With
the proliferation of huge data streams with associated data analytics, project
management professionals will have at their disposal deep levels of diagnostic and
predictive insight, increasing efficiency, decreasing uncertainty and improving the
likelihood of successful project delivery. New technologies promise to make the
theory of risk intelligent strategies a possibility for projects both large and small.
knowledge-based expert systems
(KBES) aims to provide estimates of the
duration and resource requirements for
project activities based on expert's
knowledge. Further, to assess claims and
provide expert decisions based on the
claim conditions.
Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are the
pieces of a computing system designed to
simulate the way the human brain analyses
and processes information. They are the
foundations of AI and solve problems that
would prove impossible or difficult by
human or statistical standards. In project
management ANN aims (1) to automate the
sequencing of project activities based on
functional requirement. (2) to estimate the
probability of occurrence for project risks.
(3) to predict the performance of future
projects based on the project parameters
such as the project manager’s competence,
the contractor’s ability and the contracting
method used.
Artificial Neural networks can, for
example, assess drone-collected
images to compare real-time
construction against planned design
drawings for any deviation from design
for corrective action. These neural
networks can also be deployed to
determine the probability that a
contractor will file a claim, enabling
project owners to proactively allocate
contingencies and deploy targeted
mitigation plans.
Humans are not great at dealing with
large volumes of data, and the sheer
volume of data available to us
sometimes prevents us from using it
directly. This is where AI systems come
in.
Big Data are large-volume, high- speed
and widely diverse information assets
that require new forms of processing to
allow improved decision-making,
greater insight into the discovery and
optimization of processes. Big data
could bring a new level of accuracy
and automation to project risk
management.
With a multitude of project data
generated in real time, there is an
opportunity for big data analytics to
conduct prescriptive and predictive
analytics that will indicate to the
project manager the probability or the
options available to steer the project
back on track if forecasted to be out of
baseline i.e. forecast project outcomes.
The IoT is a system of interrelated
computers, machines, and objects that
are provided with unique identifiers and
the ability to transfer data over a network
without requiring human-to-human or
human-to-computer interaction. The IIoT
connects devices that allow machines to
communicate across a network, with the
goal of monitoring and improving
production – for instance, preventing
unnecessary machine downtime.
Typically, the IIoT takes the form of
sensors attached to critical machines in
the factory; these sensors use the
Internet to feed management data about
machine performance. Increased
connectivity will do wonders for sharing
data across project teams and with
external stakeholders.
The information used to make decisions in the
management of complex projects is generated and
stored digitally. Complex projects are a set of
projects that share particular defining
characteristics: they are high-tech, capital intensive
engineering projects that are of a significant scale,
relatively long duration, and require firms to work
collaboratively across firm boundaries in project
delivery. Such projects deliver complex product
systems, such as aircraft, experimental facilities and
railways. Their delivery requires systems integration
capabilities, as complex product systems are
designed and integrated through a network of
component and sub-system suppliers.
Autonomous equipment doesn’t need
an operator. For example, autonomous
vehicles or drones are already part of
construction robotics. Such equipment
can transport supplies and materials.
They can move heavy loads without
additional input. It has no driver cab
and instead uses a digital logistics-
driven control technology backed by
what a “vision system” to detect
humans and obstacles while on the
move.
Drones can be used to map
construction or project sites, overflying
them while capturing information on
site activities. This information will
provide the documented status of each
job/task on site, determining actual
progress in real-time of project
activities.
Imagine a drone overlooking the Medupi or Kusile power plants
project and taking pictures in real time. The photographic imagery
captured by the drone can then be directly downloaded into a
building information management system (BIM) to be used to manage
the entire project with scheduling software. This information will feed
into quantity surveying/costs software to generate payment
certificates due to contractors. This will provide the project
planner/controller/project manager with real-time progress both
schedule and cost updates on their projects. This has the potential of
fully automating the project monitoring function with resultant
redundancies of project planners/cost analyst roles or re-invention of
their roles.
§ Cyber security refers to the body of
technologies, processes, and practices
designed to protect networks, devices,
programs, and data from attack, damage, or
unauthorized access.
§ Regardless of the type of data you’re managing
on your project, it should be protected. Project
managers must consider the value of the data,
whose data it is (customers and/or clients) and
the potential effects if it were breached.
§ Project managers (PMs) should also consider
how much data and of what kind will be
affected in the event of a breach. Organisations
holding highly sensitive data, like health
records, must protect it at any cost. You cannot
afford to be unaware of what kind of data you’re
dealing with.
The project management profession will need to
adopt the fourth industrial revolution technologies
to leverage envisaged efficiencies and productivity
benefits. The technologies if well harnessed should
enhance the chances of project success; delivering
projects faster and within budget.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR TIME