Machine learning and artificial intelligence could be the key to simplifying project management.
As it stands, engineering project management is an arduous process. Many factors need to be considered, including project lifecycle, scheduling, costs, and quality management.
However, engineers in the Silicon Valley are coming to the rescue. Tara.ai is a project management platform that aims to enable product teams to be on time and budget. The company has just raised US $10 million in capital to continue its development.
A report by global management consulting company McKinsey, discovered that US $66 billion was “lost” across 5000 separate projects. This was due to them exceeding their lifecycles, poor planning, and the wasteful expenditure on the wrong kind of talent. Now one of McKinsey’s ex-employees, Iba Masood, is a co-founder of Tara.ai.
One of the more interesting features of Tara.ai is the recruitment section, which ensures the right people are working on each project.
“We realized that recruiting was actually the final decision you make, not the first, and we wanted to be involved earlier in the decision-making process,” Masood told Techcrunch.
“We saw a much bigger opportunity looking not at the people, but at the whole project.”
Once team members have been recruited for a project, Tara.ai can recommend the right people for each specific task.
On their website, the company explains, “with Tara.ai, you know the right person for the right task. Integrations create dynamic profiles for team members such as engineers and designers, so they can be easily recommended for tasks and objectives.”
This means the responsibility falls on the engineers to ensure their CV stands out when they are applying for jobs.
Steve Mackay, the Dean of Engineering at the Engineering Institute of Technology, gives the following advice: “First of all, ensure your CV is designed for the particular job you are applying for. Most people think they can use a generic resume because they have to apply for lots of jobs. This is not advisable. Be specific! Focus on the job you really want. Your CV should also include business strengths and business wins.”
It’s important to note that while certain platforms can guide you through each project, machine learning and AI are still no match for a competent human project manager. The individual in charge of managing the project still needs to be driven and competent to ensure the project runs smoothly.
This is why the Engineering Institute of Technology offers an interactive three-month online course that specializes in helping students develop the required leadership and management skills to successfully oversee a project.
Project managers do not have to wait for the software that leverages the team’s time and expertise. Streamlined project management tools are already in existence. Cloud-based software communications and project management platforms like Slack or Atlassian Jira are helping projects move along efficiently across the globe.
Tara.ai is hoping that they can take it even further.
Works Cited
Lunden, Ingrid, and Ingrid Lunden. “Tara.ai, Which Uses Machine Learning to Spec out and Manage Engineering Projects, Nabs $10M.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 1 July 2019, techcrunch.com/2019/07/01/tara-ai-which-uses-machine-learning-to-spec-out-and-manage-engineering-projects-nabs-10m/
