Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
I managed at somepoint in time 4 small projects in parallel (Around $500,000 Each) - The hectic issue and most important was maintaining proper communication with all stakeholders of the four projects at all times.
For > $1 Million, and in order to manage effectively and efifciently, one project at a time otherwise it will be a nightmare from all directions unless you are a superman. Saving Changes...
I think it is a matter of circumstances - the role you hold, the size of the PM team, the involvement of a PMO, the complexity of the projects, duration and size, of course, and many more. In my opinion, there is no rule of thumb, only common sense: As many as you are sure you can handle properly.
Bests! Saving Changes...
Anonymous
In total agreement with Christina
In business (and originating from military if i am not mistaken) a person can handle a few things - manage a few people - etc. In marketing I was taught once about the rule of 7 - which was a slogan should not have more than 7 words other wise it is too much to handle.
Based on that people can manage more than one project if the project does not require them full time and of course the project manager is working as a PM not as the jack of all trades.
25 years ago or so - I was working for petrochemical company as a project manager for multiple small projects - and any one of us would be managing somewhere between 6 to 12 projects (EFFECTIVELY - sorry Suhail).
The key is we were Project Managers - meaning we had construction managers - safety managers and each was also handling about 6 to 12 projects.
So are you managing as a PM or jack of all trades? :) Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
My rule of thumb, Paolo, is up to the point I am fully allocated. I would rather 7 projects that keep me 84% busy than a single project that keeps me 100% busy.
The reason? By having a bit of "bench", it allows me to react quickly as necessary. If you're head down all the time, it's difficult to to manage events happening around you.
I am currently up to five projects. Two of them take less than 10% of my time, each, and the top two take 25%, each. I still have some room to manoeuvre.
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1 reply by Paolo Cornali
Jan 27, 2016 12:29 AM
Paolo Cornali
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I agree with you Stephane, anyway in the workload evaluation should be considered the inefficiency added by switching the mind from one project to another. IMHO,this inefficiency can become very important when you manage multiple projects.
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Philippe SchulerSenior Instructor/Lecturer in Project/Program/Account PMO Management| Independant ConsultantLes Choux, France
I am in agreement with all of you. Complexity, workload are key criteria to decide wether or not to accept more than one project to manage (of course if your organization leaves you the choice!!). I would add an another criteria I have always considered since I have got the necessary experience and maturity to manage multiple projects (no more than 3) at the same time: never accept to manage projects that are in the same state. For example you can start Project 3 if Project 1 is in the Closing phase and Project 2 is in "cruise" execution mode. But it can be a nightmare if you have for example to launch 2 projects at the same time.
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1 reply by Paolo Cornali
Jan 27, 2016 12:38 AM
Paolo Cornali
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I totally agree with you Philippe, in fact now I am managing 7 projects: 1 in closing state, 2 in execution state and 4 in planning state and in particular these last 4 are very difficult to manage effectively considering also that all the projects share the same resources.
Probably now I am more a jack of all trades than a PM as Mounir said.
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Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
I have two of my projects in different states: one in Connecticut and one in New York. :) Saving Changes...
Ricardo GranadosProject Manager| RtTech SoftwareHammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, Canada
I have managed up to 8 projects at the same time. Compared to 3 or 4 it is a BIG difference specially for project team and specially for the internal/external client.
My projects were on the payroll software implementation area with a budget less than 500k each. Saving Changes...
PANKAJ KUMAR JOSHIGeneral Manager| Transrail Lighting LimitedNainital, Uttrakhand, India
It is possible that you are managing many project.
Sometime you are part of Project management office who is managing multiple projects as a program. But really in most of the case someone is working under you as Dy. project manager to manage the projects at site. Saving Changes...
James PorterSr. Project Planner| Hitachi Rail STS USAGlenshaw, Pa, United States
I don't think any rule of thumb applies to this question. Project size, where they are in the project lifecycle, durations, number of stakeholders, complexity, risk profile - all of these and more would be relevant. We have people who handle 15 projects and people who handle just one.
I remember a project that was considered to be small-to-medium size and it was expected to take 25% of the PM's time. It turned out there were four different government agencies as stakeholders and two of those actually brought in a couple other organizations. The weekly project meetings had 22 people, of which 14 were stakeholders. The PM ended up full-time on the project as the stakeholders consumed all of his time. If you saw the project description on paper, you wouldn't believe it could be a PM's full-time job. Saving Changes...
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