My ChatGPT / Agile Project Management Diary — Part #2

Check out the master index for this open-ended series.

What is this session about?

The first session (described in Part #1 of this series) was about traditional project management — to establish a baseline. This session is about agile project management and ChatGPT.

The Dialog

Firstly, I asked the GPT engine how it could help. Note: “AOP” is me “AdamOnProjects”

AOP: what is agile project management?

GPT: Agile project management is an iterative and flexible approach to project  
management that emphasizes collaboration, adaptability, and customer satisfaction.  
It is a framework that is used for developing, delivering, and improving  
projects in a way that is both effective and efficient. Agile project  
management emphasizes communication and collaboration between team members,  
customers, and stakeholders, as well as a focus on delivering working  
software or other project deliverables quickly and frequently.

One of the key principles of agile project management is the use of sprints  
or iterations, which are short, fixed periods of time during which  
the team focuses on delivering a specific set of project features or  
objectives. At the end of each sprint, the team reviews their progress,  
adjusts their approach as needed, and plans for the next sprint.

Another important aspect of agile project management is the use of  
self-organizing teams. In this approach, team members are empowered to  
make decisions and solve problems collaboratively, rather than relying on a  
traditional command-and-control management structure.

Overall, agile project management is a popular approach to project management  
that is used in a wide range of industries, including software development,  
construction, and marketing, among others. Its focus on flexibility,  
collaboration, and customer satisfaction makes it a popular choice for  
teams working on complex, dynamic projects.

As with the traditional project management answer, it’s an entry-level answer to an entry-level question.

We know from Part #1 that ChatGPT isn’t aware of academic papers, but perhaps we can generate some general keywords.

AOP: what are the most effective keywords to search for more information on  
agile project management?

GPT: Here are some effective keywords to search for more information on  
agile project management:

1. Agile methodology
2. Scrum
3. Kanban
4. Lean project management
5. Agile project management tools
6. Agile project management certification
7. Agile project management frameworks
8. Agile project management best practices
9. Agile project management processes
10. Agile project management benefits

Using these keywords in your search can help you find relevant information  
on agile project management, including articles, case studies, best practices,  
and other resources.

Ok, not bad, particularly if you set up a combination of the search terms with the secondary terms in the last paragraph, e.g. “Agile project management tools case studies”.

And how about me as an Agile Project Manager, what do I need to know about?

AOP: what does a person have to know to be an agile project manager?

GPT: To be an effective agile project manager, a person should have the  
following knowledge:

1. Agile methodologies: An agile project manager should have a good  
understanding of various agile methodologies, such as Scrum, Kanban, Lean,  
and Extreme Programming. They should be familiar with the key concepts,  
roles, and practices of these methodologies.

2. Agile project management tools: An agile project manager should be familiar  
with the tools and technologies used in agile project management, such as  
project management software, collaboration tools, and agile project management  
frameworks.

3. Project management principles: An agile project manager should have a  
solid understanding of project management principles, including scope,  
time, cost, quality, risk, and stakeholder management. They should be able  
to apply these principles in an agile context.

4. Communication and collaboration: An agile project manager should have  
excellent communication and collaboration skills. They should be able to  
facilitate team meetings, foster collaboration, and manage stakeholder  
relationships effectively.

5. Agile project management practices: An agile project manager should be  
familiar with agile project management practices, such as user story mapping,  
product backlog management, sprint planning, and retrospectives.

6. Continuous improvement: An agile project manager should be committed to  
continuous improvement. They should be able to identify areas for improvement, 
facilitate retrospectives, and encourage experimentation and innovation.

Overall, being an agile project manager requires a combination of project  
management skills, agile knowledge, and soft skills such as communication,  
collaboration, and leadership. It is important to continue learning and  
adapting to new challenges and changing project requirements.

As with the initial questions in Part #1, these are not particularly exciting answers, but they do block out areas of investigation. Whilst they may be fairly conventional answers, there’s nothing particularly wrong. An expert might debate a couple of points, but if I were advising someone to learn those things about Agile, I wouldn’t think I was asking them to waste their time.

Again, depending on the background and purpose of a person interested in learning about agile, I could copy and paste that answer into an email or chat and not feel I’d done the wrong thing.

The Bottom Line

Given that this is the early days of my ChatGPT journey, I can live with the fact that I’m getting generic answers.

As with the answers in the traditional project management session in Part #1, they are general, almost entry level answers — at least to an expert.

The important thing is that we’ve established that the dialogue interface to this knowledge repository and the AI engine that drives the dialogue is not giving me a “bum steer”.

The question remains as to how detailed and expert-level we can get.

Given that ChatGPT is a “prompt and response” engine, what we need to figure out are two things:

1. how expert-level we can become in the questions we ask, and
2. what level of expertise is buried in the underlying knowledge base

Then we’ll know how far ChatGPT can take us.

Stay tuned

And don’t forget to check out the master index for this open-ended series.