The Juggling Act

  ProjectsAtWork  

Managing multiple projects is tricky, but a few fundamentals can keep you from dropping the ball.

Managers of multiple projects face multiple challenges. Lurking behind those challenges is often a sense that each project's timeframe and budget have been "downsized" and that team members must divide their loyalties-all to the detriment of each project.

"Your ability to get your work done is influenced by other people on other projects that don't directly have anything to do with you or your project," says Michael Dobson, a project management consultant based in  Bethesda, Md. While team members on single projects are wholly dedicated to them, he explains, on multiple projects they typically slice up their day and report to different managers. Project managers get caught in the middle, often vying for resources, money and executive support.

But there are practices that can increase the chances multiple projects come in on time and on budget.

Make Contact

The best thing you can do to ensure your many projects succeed is to communicate. "The single most important thing above all else is effective communications," says Michael Carpenter, project manager in the Enterprise Solutions Division of Phoenix-based Avnet Inc. With his time divided among many projects, he says not much …

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