New Project Manager, Simple Structure, Multi Project Help
Rachel MProject Manager| NoneRichmond, Va, United States
Hello!
Thanks to this community and PMI, I have achieved a great job as a PM. I have only been doing this now for 2-3 months and have questions. I need help with my situation.
My company had little to no structure when I arrived, I had no training coming in either, and I feel more like a Portfolio Manager than a Project Manager. I have about 10 projects on hand and 4 staff members and incoming members to orchestrate. I was able to get Monday.com, and that's been a great resource for pulling all of the data together.
We have 1 massive project, and the rest are small in comparison. I am having a difficult time laying out how long each will take and balancing who should do them. The big project's leads are slow to getting us the resources we need (they have many members).
It sounds more like program planning than portfolio planning. You don't say where you are at currently in your planning, but here is what I would suggest:
1) Lay out a high level timeline for each project with major milestones, but focus on the biggest project. That will constrain your resources and provide a basic timeline. First focus on the flow-time between milestones so you understand what each will take in an ideal situation (the Happy Path).
2) Constrain your milestones to program dates like contractual deliveries. This takes your happy path flow times and aligns it to the calendar.
3) Build a resource plan for each project, starting with the big one. If you estimate hours per team by week or month, you can build a sand pile chart showing your staffing requirements by team and total staffing needs by time period.
4) Compare your staffing requirements to your organization's staffing plan. This shows where your needs exceed your constraints and your major risk sources based on available staffing.
5) Build your work-around plans for where your requirements exceed your resources. This is where you start moving schedule milestones around, constructing resource calendars for essential skills, and other necessary data sources to show how you need to prioritize and juggle your resources between projects.
Steps 1-4 are pretty basic schedule building and business plan alignment. Step 5 is where the creative "what now?" problem solving comes in. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Perhaps I did not understand your question but here comes my answer trying to help you. Prioritize the existen projects in terms of your company survival. 1-Which is the project which is the number one in terms on your company survival?. That is the project you have to pay attention and mainly that is the client you have to satisfy. 2-How many resources (all type of resources) that number 1 priority project needs?. With that on hand then estimate the other projects your company have in hands. When you have all these then you can go to your company owners because they must to decide the course of action.
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1 reply by Darla McLaughlin
Feb 05, 2021 8:08 AM
Darla McLaughlin
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Agree, definitely need to prioritize and rank the projects, aligning to the strategy of the company.
Encourage the leadership team to only take on as much concurrent project work as can be delivered without requiring multitasking on the part of the team members.
Any time we permit multitasking between multiple projects, predictability tends to go out the window.
You might consider reading Steve Tendon and Daniel Doiron's great book Tame your Work Flow as it provides some great guidance on how to apply Dr. Goldratt's Theory of Constraints to effectively schedule and deliver multiple projects.
Kiron Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Rachel,
On top of Keith’s, Sergio’s, and Kiron’s thoughts, I would like to bring attention to a couple of your statements:
- The big project’s leads are slow to getting us the resources we need (they have many members).
- I am having a difficult time laying out how long each project will take..
The question I have is this, “what is your role?” It appears as though you are in (somewhat of) a passive position on the resourcing side of the equation. If that’s true, then it’s likely that you are acting in a pseudo coordinator / project-tracking role.
Traditionally, a PM operates under a charter and is empowered as the “executive” of the project, responsible for its success or failure. In other words, they are empowered to construct/model the project through the charter, which includes taking a proactive role in staffing. As the proxied executive of the project (i.e., the project manager), you will NOT allow the project to begin unless the project has what it needs to be successful, which includes making sure that “strategies are aligned” within the organization (e.g., mitigating competing projects, etc.).
So, if you have that “sinking feeling,” you may want to charter the strategic projects, and if they are already chartered, then you may want to examine your role. The question is this; if the projects go awry, will you be held accountable for them (at some level)? If that’s true, then ask yourself, “do I hold the reigns of the project, capable of directing it to success regardless of what comes your way during execution?”
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1 reply by Darla McLaughlin
Feb 05, 2021 8:09 AM
Darla McLaughlin
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Agree. Putting the role of the PM to paper. In some projects, we've had PM, Project Lead, Executive Sponsor. All should be defined.
Agree with Keith, I will add, use an Issue tracker will help to catch each issue on time, communicate with stakeholders, and strictly following up the project schedule. Saving Changes...
Alex KuczeraProject Manager| Stormtec FiltrationCanmore, Alberta, Canada
This is a really interesting dilemma, if you have time please fill us in on what solution you came up with. Saving Changes...
Perhaps I did not understand your question but here comes my answer trying to help you. Prioritize the existen projects in terms of your company survival. 1-Which is the project which is the number one in terms on your company survival?. That is the project you have to pay attention and mainly that is the client you have to satisfy. 2-How many resources (all type of resources) that number 1 priority project needs?. With that on hand then estimate the other projects your company have in hands. When you have all these then you can go to your company owners because they must to decide the course of action.
Agree, definitely need to prioritize and rank the projects, aligning to the strategy of the company. Saving Changes...
On top of Keith’s, Sergio’s, and Kiron’s thoughts, I would like to bring attention to a couple of your statements:
- The big project’s leads are slow to getting us the resources we need (they have many members).
- I am having a difficult time laying out how long each project will take..
The question I have is this, “what is your role?” It appears as though you are in (somewhat of) a passive position on the resourcing side of the equation. If that’s true, then it’s likely that you are acting in a pseudo coordinator / project-tracking role.
Traditionally, a PM operates under a charter and is empowered as the “executive” of the project, responsible for its success or failure. In other words, they are empowered to construct/model the project through the charter, which includes taking a proactive role in staffing. As the proxied executive of the project (i.e., the project manager), you will NOT allow the project to begin unless the project has what it needs to be successful, which includes making sure that “strategies are aligned” within the organization (e.g., mitigating competing projects, etc.).
So, if you have that “sinking feeling,” you may want to charter the strategic projects, and if they are already chartered, then you may want to examine your role. The question is this; if the projects go awry, will you be held accountable for them (at some level)? If that’s true, then ask yourself, “do I hold the reigns of the project, capable of directing it to success regardless of what comes your way during execution?”
Agree. Putting the role of the PM to paper. In some projects, we've had PM, Project Lead, Executive Sponsor. All should be defined. Saving Changes...
