Brian SchuckmanOperations Program Manager| Radial Maineville, Oh, United States
I've seen conversations regarding a PM can handle a certain number of projects before quality substantially decreases, and yes, there are many variables that could also be taken into consideration.
So, is is best to cap a PM off at a certain number of projects?
Or is it possible to quantify the amount of hours each week a PM is expected to put into a project? Is there a best practice percentage of how many hours a PM should then be expected to work on a project? For example, the dev & testing estimate for a project is 100 hours. Should a PM then be expected to be available 20% of that 100 hour estimate = 20 hours over the life of the project?
Thanks for the assistance. Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Sudarshan HarshePM III MBA Operations PRINCE2® SIX SIGMA| Fidel SoftechPune, Maharashtra, India
In my opinion, there can’t be any such condition to number of project a PM can handle simultaneously/parallel. One PM may exhaust in just handling a huge single project due to number of routine constraints and one may handle a dozen of small projects very easily because of the nature of projects.
So, there can’t be cap on numbers.
Secondly it is tricky to measure amount of time a PM may spend on a project. One can assume it, put it theoretically, but difficult to measure in real time. Even on a small project like the example you have given; in a situation you may find PM had to spend almost equal time as resources due to constraints.
There are assumptions but, I think you can’t fix it in terms!
Saving Changes...
I believe you cannot determine the exact time that PM need to spend in a project. It depends on the project size, type, PM experience, templates you can use, etc. Having multiple projects running simultaneously may decrease quality, but again its up to the PM experience. Saving Changes...
Bernard GorePortfolio, Programme & Project Professional| NZ PoliceWellington, New Zealand
As you say, there are many variables, so it is impossible to give straightforward rules. A general rule of thumb is 3-4 projects max, although many projects require more attention and may require a full time PM dedicated to them.
Other projects are intermittent - especially when long approval process or resource allocation delays exist in the organisation, or the projects involvement procurement with lengthy lead times - if these mesh nicely together the PM can successfully manage many more projects, because at any one time only a few require significant action, the others are just a watching brief.
One important factor to consider is switch-over time. When a PM is managing more than one project it takes finite time to make the shift from working on one project to another - both mentally and physically getting the relevant project files open.
A lot depends on how frequently the PM needs to attend to each project. If this can be done in daily blocks then that is relatively easy - Monday is Project A, Tuesday project B etc on a regular schedule. However if two or more projects require attention every day, and issues are likely to arise in any of them that require immediate attention, then a lot of time is "wasted" switching between projects, the PM will be able to manage fewer projects well. Saving Changes...
Beng Peng YapProject Manager (Product Creation)| SITARichmond, British Columbia, Canada
In my company, we have a way to size a project. This is largely based on several factors, chief of which is the budget, team size, external stakeholders involvement, expected duration, strategic value of the project ... to name a few. Based on these factors, we assign a preliminary project grade level and a PM with the appropriate skill level is assigned. The PM then takes the project thru the definition stage at which point the project parameters, sizing, etc are confirmed.
Many PMs in my company handles 1-2 projects only ... and most projects have 2-3 project managers! Let me know if you want me to explain more. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I don't think you can cap the number of projects a project manager can take on at any one time. There are too many variables: project size, team size, geographic spread, PM expertise, company maturity etc.
The other thing that would need to be considered is elapsed time on a project. You could be managing several but actually nothing is happening on one (or two, or more) right now, so you have capacity to take on something else.
This is why project managers and their managers need a degree of professional judgement, so no one on the teams get overworked. Saving Changes...
Navdeep JoshiSr. Consltant - CA PPM| TBDBangalore, Karnataka, India
"But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."
