Data Labelling services to be offered by Uber
Uber has embarked on a new project to offer data labelling services to any business interested in this service. Data labelling can assist businesses in their pursuit of more effective utilisation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in order to build their revenue streams and reduce their cost structure. This is because AI has the potential to make a business both more effective and more efficient.
Uber is now offering this service because of the data labelling capability it has developed in-house for its own suit of technology ventures, including Uber taxis, Uber Eats and Uber Freight. Uber for Business is their business unit responsible for offering data labelling services to third party businesses.
What is data labelling?
Data labelling is the process of labelling data so that it can be used by artificial intelligence for descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive purposes. For example, labelling of photos can assist AI to categorise photos predicting the next type of image to arise. This could be used in medical treatment. It could also be used for predicting the type of furniture that a particular buyer persona may purchase.
The business need
Uber have assessed that offering data labelling services presents a substantial new business opportunity. As a result of this assessment, you have been appointed as the Project Manager within the Uber for Business subsidiary to bring this service to life. The Project Owner is the General Manager of Uber for Business division. The Project Sponsor is the Chief Financial Officer for this division.
Your Project team is resourced from staff within the Uber for Business division, along with access Ubers central IT function. Given the large scale of this project, you have also been allocated three Project Facilitators, with 100% of their time dedicated to this project.
The project
As Project Manager, you are responsible for making the Uber data labelling service, operational, to third party businesses. You have been allocated a budget of $ 10 million and a timeframe of 6 months. You are under pressure to deliver, as Uber is aware of the value of first mover advantage in the technology sector.
The Business case for this project has already been prepared and approved by the Project Owner (General Manager).
Initial Tasks required by the Project Manager
You are required to perform the following initial tasks:
- Set the project objectives, for approval by the General Manager (Project Owner)
- Prepare a project scope document.
- Agree on approval process for any changes needed during the life of the project.
Questions for Assessment 1
- Map out the tasks you consider are required for this project, using the Business Analytics life cycle.
- Outline the steps in the project management methodology you intend to follow.
- Which stakeholders would you invite to your project planning workshop. Include the reasons for nominating these stakeholders.
- As this is a Business Analytics project, accessing data is fundamental to the progression of this project. Explain the type of data you will seek as part of this project and how you will ensure this data is accessed in your required timeframe.
Sample Answer
Here are the initial tasks required for the Uber data labelling service project, along with the answers to your assessment questions:
Initial Tasks Performed by the Project Manager:
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Set the project objectives, for approval by the General Manager (Project Owner):
Project objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). Here are proposed objectives for the Uber data labelling service:
- Specific: Develop and launch a fully operational data labelling service under the “Uber for Business” umbrella, catering to third-party businesses.
- Measurable: Onboard and secure contracts with at least 10 paying third-party business clients for the data labelling service within the first 3 months of launch. Achieve a customer satisfaction rating of 4.0 or higher (on a 5-point scale) for the data labelling service during the initial 6 months.
- Achievable: Leverage Uber’s existing in-house data labelling capabilities, the allocated budget of $10 million, a dedicated project team including three Project Facilitators, and access to Uber’s central IT function to build and deploy the service within the 6-month timeframe.
- Relevant: Capitalize on the identified substantial new business opportunity in the growing AI market by offering a valuable service based on Uber’s established expertise, directly contributing to the revenue streams and market position of the “Uber for Business” division.