Boosting Project Management Efficiency with ChatGPT: Instant reports and tailored communication at your Fingertips

In previous articles I demonstrate how ChatGPT can assist us in complex scheduling processes, and how you can start using the tool. In this article, I will dive deeper into how it can revolutionize project monitoring and reporting.

In today's fast-paced business environment, quick access to project information is crucial. ChatGPT can provide on demand information about projects, generate in a matter of seconds reports and even customize communication on demand. With its ability to focus on urgent matters and present the information in a readable and simple way, ChatGPT offers project managers and teams a valuable tool for improving efficiency and productivity.

Let's explore ChatGPT's potential in a series of articles, using AI4mgmt company as our use case. We'll examine various situations the company faces and how leveraging ChatGPT's natural language interaction capabilities can provide a significant advantage.

Join me on this journey as we discover how ChatGPT can simplify data reporting and elevate project management and management in general to a next level!

Providing the right data for optimal results

Providing clear and structured data is crucial for obtaining the desired results from ChatGPT. Ensuring the data stays within the token limit is essential to prevent the inclusion of unrelated information by ChatGPT. As previously mentioned, using the UI chat interface requires recalling all information used in another session, as it looks like, it wasn't planned to retain information between sessions.

Using the tokenizer tool and following OpenAI's guidelines, I was able to compact the data to stay under the limit of tokens. 

Carefully choosing the data to provide will yield better results.

Data Confirmation: The key to preventing Headaches

Additionally to ChatGPT summarizing the provided data in order to ensure that it was interpreted correctly, it is advised to also ask ChatGPT some control questions, the same way we did in previous articles, to confirm the accuracy of the project information. In our case, I am using the same use case described in the first article to build the initial dataset.

AI4Mgmt is a technology company that provides a SaaS tool for data-driven decision-making. AI4Mgmt has a highly skilled team of professionals with diverse expertise in the AI industry. Sophie Dubois, the CEO of the company, leads the team that includes a CTO, a project manager, and also business analysts and developers located across the world.

AI4Mgmt has a diverse clientele that includes companies from various industries such as finance, automotive, and technology. Acme Corp, Big Industries, Auto Motors, and Cool Gadgets are some of the clients that AI4Mgmt has worked with. The company's clients are spread across the globe.

AI4Mgmt has completed several successful projects. The company has a well-defined project framework. Currently 4 projects are ongoing, each one with a specific situation.

The questions I used for this session were:

[Q]

1.    How many ongoing projects does AI4Mgmt have currently?

2.    What is the format of the report status and its sections?

3.    How many phases are there in a project implementation?

4.    Based on the project framework, what are the different statuses for a phase?

5.    What are the standard deliverables included in a standard implementation?

6.    Provide information about the projects for clients 1 and 2.

Now that I had confirmed the information is correctly stored, it's time to do some reporting and monitoring magic!

[Q] show me the different projects in a table format, ordered by status, from red to green, include the project information on this table

Let’s focus on the red one

[Q] Why Auto Motors is Red?

Let’s perform a request for a report status, remember we expect to follow the sections I provided in the initial dataset ("exec summary","risks","schedule","budget","deliverables","next steps")

Great, let’s request for suggestions to improve the situation

While these suggestions can improve the situation, I was hoping for more specific insights based on the project details provided. To get more precise solutions, it's may be important to include additional information such as risk impacts, delayed deliverables, team capability, and external factors that may be affecting the project.

Let’s now prepare a reporting support for the CEO, one for the client sponsor and one for the PM to focus on the mitigation plan. This information has not being provided, lets see what the result is:

I was impressed by the proposal's quality, which addressed the issue in a clear, precise, and professional manner, suitable for an email to an executive member. Some adjustments are still needed but the effort is way less that if I had to write it from the beginning.

Now let’s see how, through a simple instruction provide in natural language, chatGPT proposes an email to be addressed to the client, in this case the sponsor.

As you can see in the question, I requested two objectives for this email:

1. To warn about the situation and
2. To make sure the sponsor will know we are handling the situation (which is true thanks to the answer provided by chatGPT in Realtime).

I concluded the demand by requesting to provide the list of actions (which if needed I can amend to include who’s accountable and when the action is expected)

Let's say this email is clear and precise but seems too long. How about asking to shorten by it 20%?

That's great! Although it may seem a bit 'harsh,' ChatGPT was able to generate a version of the email in just a couple of seconds, which would have taken me a certain amount of time to write on my own. I can easily modify this version to fit my needs, which ultimately requires less effort than writing from scratch.

Now, let's ask ChatGPT to propose an email that will be addressed to the client's Project Manager, emphasizing the importance of spending time on resolving the situation, while using a 'firm but encouraging' tone.

And now let’s put an internal weekly follow up meeting for the next month in order to track the project progress

If I want another suggestion I just need to click on “regenerate response”!

Finally let’s request for information about the recurrent event

Wrap-up

In this article, I explored how ChatGPT can support companies like AI4Mgmt in improving the efficiency and accuracy of project reporting. I provided data in a clear and concise format, staying under the token limits, and then performing a series of questions related to project framework, client information, and project status reports, confirming the information was correctly stored.

I then demonstrated how, using natural language to formulate my requests, ChatGPT can quickly and easily retrieve critical project information in real-time, identify potential risks, suggest corrective actions to put the project back on track, and finally, prepare emails for clients and executives. I ended this showcase by requesting through a concise email for the PM and CTO to set a recurrent meeting for follow-up.

Overall, it looks like ChatGPT can help companies like AI4Mgmt streamline their project management process, improve communication, and considerably reduce the time spend on such tasks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, tools like ChatGPT hold tremendous potential for businesses seeking to optimize their internal processes.

We are just beginning to explore the capabilities of this powerful technology, which, like wild horses, needs to be tamed to harness its full potential.

While there is a risk of receiving unrelated or erroneous answers from ChatGPT when exceeding token limits (as discussed earlier), the benefits of engaging in natural language conversations with ChatGPT for real-time updates and instructions justify the effort needed to provide the right data. It's worth noting that some responses, like risks and corrective actions, may appear more like a list of best practices rather than a thorough analysis, possibly due to missing information in the initial dataset.

ChatGPT's ability to handle time-consuming tasks such as generating email content, presenting real-time data, and scheduling events offers significant time-saving benefits.

It's important to recognize that we have yet to unlock the full potential of this emerging technology. As with any new technology, there will be a period of excitement and exploration before it finds its footing in various industries and use cases. Over time and with dedication, AI tools like ChatGPT will become invaluable resources for businesses.

By leveraging ChatGPT, as demonstrated in our current article series, every company can focus on critical aspects of their project management processes, such as decision-making or strategic management, while leaving administrative tasks to ChatGPT.