Presentation: Using AI to validate and improve Traditional & Agile project schedules to reduce the risk of cost and timeline overruns
Abstract: Every project manager has lived through it: a project schedule that looks complete—yet hides ambiguity, missing tasks, unrealistic durations, or poorly decomposed work. Whether in Microsoft Project, Jira, or Agile tools like Azure Boards, schedules often lack the level of detail needed to forecast risk, leading to cost overruns, missed deadlines, and stakeholder frustration.
This session demonstrates how AI can serve as a project schedule “risk validator”—a smart, objective reviewer that challenges assumptions, identifies missing decomposition, and strengthens schedule integrity before costly problems surface. Participants will see how to apply generative AI to test the quality of their project plans—regardless of methodology (Traditional/Waterfall, Agile, or hybrid).
Project teams often “plan to fail,” not because the work is impossible, but because the schedule conceals risk.
Through AI demonstrations, participants will see how to prompt an AI assistant to analyze any schedule and evaluate its: task granularity, labor work estimates, cost estimates, and staff resourcing.
The key takeaways for participants include:
- Quick review on the difference of such project management tools, such as ADO and Microsoft Project, to forecast vs manage project work.
- How to use AI as a schedule risk auditor by detecting insufficient task decomposition, work estimates, and testing your project forecasting assumptions.
- How to create an AI prompt toolkit where you can use ChatGPT, Copilot, or your preferred AI tool to improve schedule clarity and completeness.
PMI Talent Triangle: Ways of Working
Biography: Rob London is a Managing Partner and Senior Consultant at CoffeeCat Solutions. He specializes in project risk management and project restructuring, and VIBE programming of AI GEN AI applications with over 15 years of consulting experience. He holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Wisconsin, with a focus on computer and process design, and previously worked at Oracle. As a certified PMI-PMP, PMI-RMP, PMI-CPMAI, Scum Alliance CSP, Rob actively promotes the importance of risk management in the software development lifecycle. Based in Virginia, Rob enjoys spending time with his family and cats, practicing archery, and creating stained glass art.
