Exercise: Create a project plan using Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat

  • 7 minutes

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat can revolutionize the way IT professionals collaborate and communicate in the digital workspace. It seamlessly integrates into Microsoft 365 and offers a robust platform for IT professionals to enhance teamwork, share insights, and accelerate problem-solving within the IT ecosystem.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat serves as a central hub for real-time collaboration. It enables IT professionals to connect instantly, share information, and coordinate efforts efficiently. From the Copilot Chat page, you can ask questions about content in your OneDrive or SharePoint files. Copilot can access and reference those documents to provide context-aware answers, summaries, or insights. This powerful tool enables streamlined communication, breaking down silos and fostering a collaborative environment where IT teams can collectively address challenges and share valuable expertise.

This training exercise uses Copilot Chat to create a project plan to install a network security product. You begin by asking Copilot to analyze a product specification report for a new network security product that you plan to install. You then ask it to update the project plan with information from the product spec report.

Exercise

As the Director of IT at Adatum Corporation, you've been reviewing a product specification report for the Contoso CipherGuard Sentinel X7 network security product. You plan to install this product, which provides advanced security protection that is far beyond anything Adatum has today. However, given the complexity of your corporate network, you want to create a project plan to guide the implementation. As such, you want Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat to create a project plan based on IT industry guidelines for installing network security components. You then want Copilot Chat to analyze the product spec report and incorporate its requirements into the project plan.

Perform the following steps to create your project plan using Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat:

  1. Select the following link to download a copy of the Contoso CipherGuard Product Specification report to your Downloads folder.
  2. In Microsoft Edge, navigate to Microsoft Copilot by entering the following URL: https://www.office.com
  3. On the Microsoft Copilot home page, select Copilot in the navigation pane. Doing so opens Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
  4. On the Copilot Chat page, a Work/Web toggle switch may appear at the top of the page depending on your Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing. If the toggle switch doesn't appear, then Copilot Chat only accesses public Web content. However, if the toggle switch appears, then you can use it to direct Copilot to access either your Microsoft 365 data or public web data. By default, the Work option limits Copilot's reach to your Microsoft 365 organizational data. In comparison, the Web option enables Copilot to access web content (such as up-to-date information from the internet) for real-time data. It doesn't access your Microsoft 365 data directly unless it's specifically part of a query that involves your work-related content. Since you want Copilot to access the public web guidelines on installing a corporate network security product, select the Web option if the Work/Web toggle switch appears.
  5. You're now ready to use Copilot. Enter the following prompt and then select the Submit arrow icon in the corner of the prompt field: I'm the Director of IT at Adatum Corporation. Create a project plan for installing a new network security product into a corporate network. Base this plan on IT industry guidelines for installing network security products.
  6. Review the project plan that Copilot created. You aren't satisfied that it encompasses all the areas that it should. Enter the following prompt to have it amend its plan by including areas of specific interest to you. If any of the areas included in this prompt are already in Copilot's previous response, then remove them from this prompt so that Copilot doesn't duplicate them: While that was a good start, I feel like it's missing important areas. Please add the following items to the existing list: testing and QA, training, communication, document and reporting, stakeholder analysis, project timeline, and risk assessment and mitigation.
  7. Review the amended project plan. You're happy with the breadth of topics covered, so now you want Copilot to update the plan with information from the product spec for the Contoso CipherGuard Sentinel X7 security product. Enter the following prompt, but don't submit it yet as you must first link the file to the prompt in the next step: This version looks better. Please review the attached file, which is a product specification for the Contoso CipherGuard Sentinel X7 security product, and update your project plan with information from this product spec.
  8. In the prompt field, select the Add content button. In the File explorer window that appears, navigate to your Downloads folder containing the Contoso CipherGuard Product Specification file, select the file, and then select the Open button to attach the file to the prompt. Select the Submit icon to submit the prompt.
  9. Review how Copilot inserted features from the product spec into the project plan. While this looks good, you feel that the project plan is lacking in specific details. To address this issue, enter the following prompt: We're almost there. Please break down each item on the report into multiple detailed steps.
  10. Review the results. Now that the project plan is created, you can optionally save it to a Word document for future reference. While you can copy and paste the contents into a Word document, you can also have Copilot do it for you. You like the idea of Copilot doing the work, so enter the following prompt: Create a Word (.docx) file that contains the detailed project plan.