Connie InmanDirector, Clinician Payroll Transformation| TEAMHealthHouston, Tx, United States
How many projects does it take to break a project manager? I'm trying to figure out a model for our PMO to determine how many projects a senior level project manager could successfully manage. I know that the three most important variables are resource and timeline conflicts, technology conflicts, and business units conflicts. As long as the projects are all within the same technology, do not conflict with resource or timeline requirements, and are for the same business unit, how many of each size project are possible? Saving Changes...
IMHO, project size and complexity are the keys, plus organizational culture, project management maturity and understanding, established methodologies and standards, quality of training, and finally, experience level of PM staff. Saving Changes...
Dr Mike O'CallaghanCoach & Project Manager| Relevant InternationalCape Town, South Africa
Hi Connie I was exposed to some research on this issue by a B.Com. post grad. I'm not sure if the author is still around, but contact me directly for her details.
She sampled many PM organisations and found some really interesting stuff. Snr Mngrs & Execs on average believe they can manage up to 12 projects at a time. Lesser folk average 2.3 projects at a time. There is a negative correlation between the number of concurrent projects and project success (r = 0.4113; p = 0 .002). Over 80% of respondents believe that 1 to 2 projects is optimum. When PMs worked on more than 2 projects, these were relatively small projects.
It was also found that many other factors (other than no. of concurrent projects) also affected success. Some PMs believed that they can work on many projects if the goals are very clearly defined and the projects were staggered. Some found that disturbances (e.g. operational demands) and multitasking reduced the number of possible concurrent projects.
So, it boils down, once again, to PM proficiency and environment. In our organisation, we try to limit each PM to 2 projects. We use contract PMs if necessary. This limitation is not always possible. If more than two projects, we try to increase Project Administrator capacity. Saving Changes...
