AI-assisted project scheduling and estimated techniques

Without accurate planning and scheduling a project is destined to fail. Estimations regarding budget and timelines should be carefully considered to ensure a project runs smoothly and outputs meet requirements.

Recent enhancements in artificial intelligence (AI) now mean that the technology can help project managers to set realistic deadlines, improve workflow and optimise operations through effective scheduling from pre-project stages, and through project delivery till its closure.

The traditional approach to project scheduling

Without AI, project managers must rely heavily on their own expertise, past experiences, and a manual process with steps, such as:

1. Defining project scope
2. Breaking down the project into stages
3. Estimating individual task duration and resources
4. Developing an initial project schedule
5. Estimating project costs
6. Identifying potential risks

This involves a large amount of guesswork and can be prone to errors, biases and difficulties handling large amounts of data. Plus, once planned it can be hard for a project manager to deviate from their initial plan and make adjustments to counteract any issues that may arise throughout.

How can AI help to improve this process?

Making use of data-driven insights and predictive analysis, AI is able to make more informed decisions regarding estimated task durations, resource requirements, and costs, as well as identifying any potential risks that may impact this schedule. Based on this analysis, a project manager can then allocate resources and members of the workforce to the task which requires the most attention at each project stage.

And its not just at the planning stage that AI can assist a project manager. Using real-time monitoring AI can track project progress and performance alerting the team when a project begins to deviate from the schedule so adjustments can be made to ensure it is still delivered on time and within budget.

Choosing the right AI tool for you

There are several AI tools that have proven particularly useful for project scheduling over the last few years. Some examples include:

• LiquidPlanner
• Forecast
• Monday
• ClickUp

All these tools can significantly enhance organisation for project managers, allowing them to keep track of team workloads, individual task completion and project progress, improving overall accuracy and efficiency.

How can project management training help me implement AI?

PRINCE2® offers a wealth of advice on improving planning practices, which can be used alongside AI adoption to optimise scheduling and improve the efficiency of your team.

Learn more about the PRINCE2 methodology, and how it could benefit your organisation, or book your training on our website.