Frequently Asked Questions

What questions do assessments ask?

TrueProject collects qualitative data through our proven assessment process. Assessment questions are determined by several factors, including the project stage, the role of the individual receiving the assessment, and the selection of KPIs and best practice repositories being utilized. TrueProject automatically selects and sends the proper evaluation based on the solution’s configuration and the project. The assessment questions have been created using academic, industry, and real-world practical knowledge and research with decades of expert experience in project management.

What other project data is collected?

TrueProject utilizes quantitative project data that is readily available to project managers.

Required Data:

• Actual and projected start/end dates for a project
• Project type and phase
• Project budget

Operational Data:

• Earned value
• Actual cost
• Planned value
• Estimate at completion
• Expected finish date

How often are assessments issued?

The frequency of the assessments can be adjusted based on the client’s discretion, but we recommend weekly assessments for most situations. Most assessments can be completed within 3-5 minutes.

Do assessments differ by role?

Assessments are role-based, and the questions asked will vary based on the role or roles everyone is assigned within a project. Changing the roles has a direct effect on the assessments themselves. The primary roles that can be assigned are project sponsor, project manager, business analyst, project office, and project team member. Each user is assigned an appropriate role. Each role has an association with assessment questions. Roles can also be customized based on the client’s request. Should the client require a custom assessment, a corresponding set of custom roles can be added.

Do questions repeat?

Some assessments, such as a phase gate, are event-based and are issued once. Other assessments may be issued periodically to predict project performance at a given time. TrueProject’s unique and extensive configurability allows assessment questioning to be structured to accommodate virtually any project situation.

Is there a user limit?

TrueProject does not limit the number of assessment takers connected to a particular project or the portfolio of projects. TrueProject incorporates an unlimited user licensing model.

How do we ensure that the project team members take their assigned assessments?

TrueProject provides sample correspondences to convey the importance of completing assessments and encourages our clients to set clear expectations of team members receiving assessment questionnaires. TrueProject automatically reminds assessment takers if they have not completed their assigned assessment questionnaires. The application also tracks assessment completions so team members who fail to take assessments can be easily identified.

To what size projects does TrueProject apply?

TrueProject is a management control and oversight SaaS solution designed to monitor all your projects all the time. TrueProject gathers information from all project team members, allowing enforcement and measurement against best practices. The analytics provide insight weeks or even months in advance to avoid challenged or failing projects. TrueProject excels with large projects, long durations, and geographically disbursed teams. However, it also works well with smaller projects as it guides project managers and team members. TrueProject also shows systemic issues and trends across the entire portfolio of projects. For small projects or work requests that are just a week or two or that only have two or three people, TrueProject may not apply. It is important to note that TrueProject does adjust the level of governance and effort needed to use TrueProject based on project size and scope.

How many best practices are available in TrueProject?

There are 28 best practice repositories, 335+ Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and over 1,000 questions that can be configured in TrueProject. In addition, customers can also have their KPIs and questions configured in their implementation of the system.

Does TrueProject incorporate PMI project management methodologies?

Yes, PMI management methodologies are incorporated into the best practices featured in TrueProject.

Can TrueProject be used on agile as well as waterfall projects?

TrueProject is designed to manage agile and waterfall projects and contains appropriate best practices that can be applied to either approach. Whether your organization refers to the initiatives upon which they work as “projects” or “sprints” or a collection of sprints that make up a project, it is the overall process of performing the work and the overall business benefits realization where TrueProject focuses its oversight and governance. TrueProject provides the overall governance and not individual task assignment, time reporting, or sprint retrospectives.

How does TrueProject Manage an Agile Sprint?

A sprint in Scrum is a short period wherein a development team works to complete specific tasks, milestones, or deliverables. Sprints, also called “iterations,” essentially break the project schedule into digestible blocks of time in which smaller goals can be accomplished. TrueProject does not manage the backlog, task prioritization, assignment, or tracking of these tasks. There are many great tools available to do so. TrueProject looks at the overall agile and project management best practices instead of individual tasks and deliverables.

Can TrueProject be used for one project?

TrueProject can be utilized for a single or hundreds of projects. The unique unlimited user and the tiered number of project pricing models allow for a “utility” type of investment for our clients. You will work with your dedicated Customer Success Manager to customize your instance of TrueProject.

Can external suppliers and vendors be incorporated as part of a project team?

External suppliers and vendors can be incorporated into TrueProject. Team members external to your organization will receive the appropriate project assessment so their critical feedback can be captured and incorporated into the system-generated insight provided to management. Clients have complete control over system security, so all external team members will interact with the system only as intended.

How does TrueProject integrate with other tools?

TrueProject integrates Workato, a leading integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS), to provide integrations with other tools and data sources. The iPaaS solution makes 600K+ pre-built integrations available across more than 1,000 applications. Its recipe authoring tools provide the ability to create connectors to additional applications. Applications imported into the TrueProject library are live in 20-30 minutes. Other application integrations may require professional services.

Is TrueProject configurable, and if so, how?

TrueProject is configurable. The solution is built to handle many different applications, so the configuration capability is built into the system. You can configure everything from your assessments and reports to KPIs and project types. We even allow you to utilize your logo!

What is TrueProject’s use of AI today?

TrueProject leverages advanced AI capabilities, powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) and proprietary prompt engineering, to deliver actionable insights based on a project’s unique data. Our AI analyzes diverse inputs, including hard data, stakeholder feedback, and hybrid datasets, to provide highly relevant recommendations and predictive insights that drive project success.

At the core of TrueProject’s AI approach is a dynamic framework that integrates domain expertise with state-of-the-art generative AI. This enables real-time, context-aware insights that adapt to the specific needs of each project environment. Regular updates and optimizations ensure our AI remains aligned with the latest industry trends and best practices.

This use of AI allows TrueProject to deliver not only predictive power but also actionable intelligence that accelerates decision-making and enhances project outcomes.

How does the AI component of TrueProject work?

The funnel depicts how TrueProject collects project information and uses AI/Analytics to predict project risks.

This can be further expanded upon below.

We were awarded two US patents, one for the overall TrueProject solution (Patent #: US 9,269,087 B2) and one specifically for the “Control Room” AI functionality (Patent #: US 8,041,647 B2). TrueProject does this through the following functions and capabilities:

Assessment Engine

• An expert consultant would walk around interviewing all project stakeholders.
• Like an expert, TrueProject asks appropriate questions based on a person’s role, project type, project phase, project status, and previous answers. TrueProject’s “Reflexive Questioning” Assessments vary in real-time based on the assessment taker’s responses to previous questions.

Scheduling Rules

• An expert consultant would also review the results of the collected data triggering additional drill-down and questioning.
• Like an expert, TrueProject distributes questionnaires based on a state or data change.

Best Practice Benchmarking

• An expert consultant would base their analysis on other project successes and failures.
• Like an expert, TrueProject can predict whether a project will succeed based on these benchmark comparisons.

What is your AI roadmap?

On the TrueProject Roadmap is machine learning, and correlation analysis based upon project success or challenges that will automatically drive the configuration. AI tools include TensorFlow, Keras, AWS Bedrock, and AWS Sagemaker. The TrueProject roadmap contains the following features:

• Incorporate sentiment analysis to provide a view of user involvement’s emotional and strategic dimensions, giving a holistic approach to enhance communication, understanding, and alignment among stakeholders.
• Machine learning using data science techniques and models for classification (supervised machine learning) to gain new insight and predictions to improve leadtime and needed responses to get on or remain on track in a project and portfolio.
• Deep learning to identify complex patterns and rules that human analysis cannot derive alone. (Providing deeper insights than the supervised models).

Does TrueProject use ChatGPT or other generative AI capabilities?

Our use of generative AI enhances insight generation by analyzing project-specific data, including hard data and stakeholder inputs, to deliver actionable and contextually relevant recommendations. These insights are dynamically integrated into TrueProject’s prediction engine and are continuously reviewed and refined to align with industry best practices.

This approach ensures that TrueProject delivers powerful, AI-driven intelligence while maintaining the highest standards of security, privacy, and compliance for our customers.

What are my AI deployment options?

Your AI deployment options with TrueProject are as follows:

• TrueProject-hosted AI engine: TrueProject’s AI engine, powered by AWS Bedrock, is fully hosted within the AWS environment. This ensures all data and AI processing remain strictly within the AWS ecosystem, isolated to TrueProject’s infrastructure.
• Customer-managed AI engine: TrueProject’s SaaS environment connects to the customer’s AWS Bedrock AI engine through a secure cloud connection. In this option, the customer manages AI models and processing in their own VPC, and TrueProject interacts with the AI engine via API calls. While this provides flexibility and control for the customer, it introduces a shared network and security interaction for communication between TrueProject and the customer’s AI engine.

How does TrueProject’s AI engine ensure the protection and privacy of customer data?

TrueProject and AWS Bedrock are committed to ensuring the highest security and data protection standards and providing customers with peace of mind when using their services. Here's how AWS Bedrock safeguards customer data:

• Advanced Data Encryption: AWS Bedrock employs robust encryption protocols, both in transit and at rest, powered by AWS Key Management Service (KMS). This ensures customer data remains secure and inaccessible to unauthorized parties throughout its journey.
• Strict Data Isolation: Each customer's data is processed in complete isolation, preventing cross-access or customer sharing. AWS Bedrock guarantees that data will only be used for its intended purpose and not for training models unless explicitly authorized by the customer.
• No Data Retention for Training: AWS Bedrock ensures that customer data is only used for the requested tasks and is not retained for future model training. This eliminates any risk of the data being included in subsequent model outputs.
• Full Customer Control: Customers control how their data is used within AWS Bedrock. The data remains private and is not incorporated into model training unless customers provide explicit consent.
• Compliance and Certifications: AWS Bedrock adheres to top industry standards such as SOC 1, SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA, ensuring compliance with global security and privacy regulations. These certifications confirm that rigorous safeguards are in place to protect customer data.
• Model Transparency: AWS collaborates with third-party providers like Anthropic and Stability AI, ensuring they uphold equally stringent data usage policies. This guarantees that customer data is not used to retrain models unless explicitly permitted by the customer.

AWS Bedrock provides a secure, transparent, and customer-controlled environment, delivering innovation and trust for all users. See https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock/latest/userguide/security.html and https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock/latest/userguide/data-protection.ht…

How is TrueProject deployed? Cloud or on-premise?

TrueProject is a SaaS solution that is deployed in the cloud. TrueProject is hosted by AWS and exceeds rigorous security and availability standards.

Can we incorporate our own best practices into TrueProject?

An organization may incorporate internal best practices into TrueProject as the application configures additional proprietary client best practices. Clients may consult the TrueProject professional services team to implement custom or proprietary best practices.

Can we create our questions?

TrueProject clients can create their best practices and assessment questions if required.