Project by Numbers: What's Your Guess?

Craig is based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and has worked with ProjectManagement.com for the last six years developing the various HEADWAY processes (Project, Change and Portfolio). He has hosted a series of webinars and is a business intelligence subject matter expert.

  Business Intelligence   PMO   Portfolio Management   Strategy  

“Hey, great to see you again! How are things? Good! Hey, can you answer my question: ‘How many projects does your organization have underway right now?’ That’s okay, don’t rush to answer. Take your time. Much like project management, a little thought can go a long way…

…hmm, I can see you are struggling. Don’t hurt yourself. Tell you what, if you have a few moments, let’s pop into this sub shop and get out of this rain. I’m buying and we know that doesn’t happen very often! While you’re thinking about that answer, I will tell you why I am asking.

As you know, a couple of months back, I left the IT group and I started to work for the PMO. I have been meeting with various managers and directors over the last month to let them know about the role of the PMO, our vision and the services we offer…you know, the usual. The discussions were pretty generic until one of the presentations last week, where one of the directors asked me the same question that I just asked you: ‘How many projects do we have underway right now?’

I was stumped. I couldn’t answer it. Talk about being thrown for a loop! Anyway, for the last week, I have been trying to find the answer. But to be honest, I am really struggling. No one in my company seems to be able to answer it. My company seems to be …

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