Project Management

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How much is too much?

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Andrew Chua Singapore
Hi, may I know if there is a rough number on how many projects one can manage?
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Maria Lekha Johnson Paris, France
1-5 projects I would say.
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
Andrew -

It depends.

If the projects are small, low complexity and possess little risk, you can manage more. As size, complexity, risk and other factors scale, a PM would handle fewer and fewer effectively.

A lot also depends on what the PM is expected to do as that varies widely...

Kiron
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Adela Tataru Senior Project Manager| Self Employed Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
I agree with Kiron, it all depends on the complexity, risks, resources, impact of the project etc

The more tasks you manage in parallel at the same time, less efficient you are so this rule applies as well to projects.

We do not always have a choice in the number of projects we are managing but ideally a limit should be set in your team/organisation by identifying some measurable factors.
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Marcus Udokang Project Manager| Aivaz Consulting Calgary, Alberta, Canada
I've always preferred no more than two projects at the same time.
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1 reply by Andrew Chua
Aug 12, 2020 8:52 PM
Andrew Chua
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That is my ideal number though :)
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
Time expended to manage a project is the 20% of the total project time, in average. You will find companies where it is 15% and others where it is 25%-30%. All depends on the maturity and mainly what the company understand as project management. For example, if the company understand that project management is micro management then forget about those percentages.
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1 reply by Andrew Chua
Aug 12, 2020 8:51 PM
Andrew Chua
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This is a good gauge by using percentage. Thanks
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Andrew Chua Singapore
Aug 12, 2020 5:23 PM
Replying to Sergio Luis Conte
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Time expended to manage a project is the 20% of the total project time, in average. You will find companies where it is 15% and others where it is 25%-30%. All depends on the maturity and mainly what the company understand as project management. For example, if the company understand that project management is micro management then forget about those percentages.
This is a good gauge by using percentage. Thanks
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Andrew Chua Singapore
Aug 12, 2020 1:06 PM
Replying to Marcus Udokang
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I've always preferred no more than two projects at the same time.
That is my ideal number though :)
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Andrew Chua Singapore
TBH, I am holding more than 10+ projects. I am feeling the pressure and the missing work across projects as time goes by. I feel really bad that things happens un-noticed.

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