Comparing the Big 3 AI Tools for Project Management
It seems like every week brings a new AI tool for you to leverage. You may be asking yourself, which is the best tool for managing my federal contract project? I find however, the better question is which tool is best suited for the task at hand? My interest naturally tends toward productivity for project management, but productivity is not the only measure of value. Here’s a little of what I've learned while testing out various tools.
Let's look at the big three AI Tools: ChatGPT 3.5 from OpenAI; CoPilot from Microsoft; and Google's Gemini, formerly known as Bard. Let's use these tools to help build out a project management plan. Here's the prompt that I entered into all three tools:
‘Build a 4 year project schedule with quarterly deliverables and annual reports, with a team of 15 full time employees using a US holiday schedule and 2 weeks of PTO for each employee.'
I’ve truncated the answers in the interest of space and time and try to focus on the key differences in the results
First up ChatGPT 3.5 output:
“Creating a detailed project schedule involves considering various factors, including the scope of the project, the nature of deliverables, dependencies, and more. Below is a general template for a 4-year project schedule with quarterly deliverables and annual reports for a team of 15 full-time employees, considering a typical US holiday schedule and 2 weeks of PTO for each employee.”
Project Schedule Overview:
Project Duration: 4 years (16 quarters)
Team Size: 15 full-time employees
Assumptions:
Employees have 2 weeks of paid time off (PTO) per year.
US holiday schedule observed.
Quarterly deliverables and annual reports are based on the project requirements.
Year 1:
Quarter 1:
January - March:
Project Kickoff.
Define project scope and objectives
Assign roles and responsibilities
Quarter 2:
January - March:
Conduct initial research and analysis
Develop a project plan
Identify potential risks and mitigation strategies
….
My comments: I have to say I really like how chatGPT just jumps into the problem. It seems to know what I'm looking for, and restates my assumptions; which is what I would expect from a Junior PM if I was to give her this task. ChatGPT starts to build a high level template that I could see myself using and modifying. This could save me hours of work trying to create a template from scratch or trying to find one to modify. I also like the business attitude of ChatGPT. It's all no nonsense and let's just focus on the problem at hand.
Now let's look at CoPilot’s output:
"Certainly! Creating a comprehensive 4-year project schedule involves several steps. Let’s break it down:"
Define the Project Scope and Objectives:
Create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS):
Estimate Task Durations:
Allocate Resources:You have a team of 15 full-time employees. Assign them to specific tasks based on their expertise.Account for their 2 weeks of PTO per year.
Set Milestones and Deliverables:Since you want quarterly deliverables, divide the project duration into quarters.
Incorporate Annual Reports:Allocate time for creating annual reports. These could be at the end of each year.
Consider US Holidays
And so on…
My comments: So I noticed right away that CoPilot has a strange enthusiasm then I guess some people could find encouraging, however it seems to have taken a step back from my prompt and laid out some fundamentals for doing the task such as defining the scope and objectives and creating the WBS. This is certainly useful but seems more fundamental than what I was looking for. I really liked the ChatGPT output better as it embedded the fundamentals into the project plan. It's almost comparable to asking for directions from Washington DC to San Francisco and CoPilot starts by estimating fuel capacity and then comparing bus, train, and plane schedules. While I think that most people would assume I meant driving directions.
Now let’s give Gemini a try
"Unfortunately, I cannot build a full-fledged 4-year project schedule without more information about the specific project. However, I can provide you with a framework and general guidelines to help you create your own schedule:"
Project Planning:
Define Project Scope: Clearly define the overall goals, objectives, and expected outcomes of the project. Break down the project into smaller phases and milestones.
Identify Deliverables: Determine the key deliverables for each quarter and year. These could be reports, prototypes, functionalities, etc.
Estimate Task Duration: Estimate the time required to complete each task or sub-task within a deliverable, considering team size, holidays, and PTO.
Resource Allocation: Assign specific tasks to team members based on their skills and expertise.
…
My comments: So Gemini starts out by apologizing which just seems odd and discouraging. Similar to CoPilot, it looks at the underlying assumptions for the project plan rather than building out the project plan. However, it does provide a schedule template in table form, which can be exported to Google Sheets which is a nice addition.
Bottom Line.
The bottom line here is that you need to decide what level of information or support you want the tool to provide and try using more than one tool to see what best serves your purposes. For me, for this prompt and for today the winner is ChatGPT. it just seems to understand better what I'm looking for. However, I wouldn't be against mixing and matching the output from the three tools to get the best result.
I'd be interested in hearing from you on your experiences with AI tools. In future blogs I plan to look at some of the lesser known AI tools and examine their utility.
To learn more about leveraging AI tools to build a better Federal contracting business reach out to us at Solutions For Government.
engage@solutionsforgovernment.net
https://www.solutionsforgovernment.net/
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