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Running Mulitple Projects

How to cope when it is all too much

Christmas is upon us and you have several balls in the air at the same time.  You have several projects at work yet you are also planning Christmas, the tree, the dinner, the presents, the Christmas cards, the house – all have to be organised and since you are the Master Project Manager in the house it all boils down to you.  You were muddling along and had a fair idea how you were going to get everything done when another project lands on your desk.  This is all you need.  Long hours and late nights loom in front of you.  So while everyone is out partying and getting in the Christmas cheer you are working late and trying to be the master juggler by not dropping any balls.   So how do you manage multiple projects without letting one drop?   

Firstly you need to learn how to say “No”.  You need to recognise when your plate is full.  You can say no by saying “If I take on this project it will delay project X and you know how important that is.”   You need to avoid taking project shortcuts because if you do, you will drop one or all of the balls.  You need to delegate what you can and know what projects are of highest priority, but above all you need to manage stakeholder expectations.

The challenges facing us running multiple projects are many, some of these are
• Lack of time – just not enough time to attend meetings and track tasks and milestones
• Lack of visibility – you just don’t know what is happening on each project
• Lack of resources – you don’t have the right resources,
• Lack of communications – no knows what is going on.

We recommend the following techniques for managing multiple projects

1. Time management – know how long it takes to do each task, don’t underestimate.  There are only 8 working hours in each day.  Plan your time with precision, like a military move, know how each hour will be spent.  Always allow for contingency.

2. Prioritize – each project.  You can prioritize your projects, by those that have to be done (legally) those that would be nice to do, and those that are routine.  There are several scoring systems out there.  You can score projects on which ones impact the profit line the most, or which projects will affect the most people, always allow for some quick wins.

3. Sequence work tasks – do all your project meetings in the one day, that way project reports can also be done at the same time.

4. Dashboard – create a dashboard so that you can see instantly what projects are coming in on time, what project delays can be expected and which project impact each other. 

We are People4projects can help you run multiple projects.