Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Sure, why not? I'd say it's more the norm than to have a single concurrent project. Not all of them may be large, or in the same phase. As of now, I have one large project, several enhancements, and a couple just starting up.
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1 reply by Mahalmadane Touré
Oct 22, 2017 7:37 AM
Mahalmadane Touré
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Thank you very much for your help.
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Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
.Here my "academic" answer: the amount of time a project manager have to allocate to perform project management activities for each project is 20% of total project duration. So, in the extremes, you can manage 5 projects at the same time. That is for organizations where you perform project management (not those where you have that title but in the field you are project leader/coordinator etc) or those where there is some grade of maturity in project management practices. You can consider a mean of 20%-35% in others. With that on mind you can estimate how much projects you can manage at the same time. If your organization culture is to perform micro-management then forget about it at least you are willing to accept "to work 24 hours per day and the night too".
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1 reply by Mahalmadane Touré
Oct 22, 2017 7:37 AM
Mahalmadane Touré
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Thank you very much for your help.
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Mahalmadane TouréEngineer| National Headquarters of Geology and Mines of Mali (Bamako)Mali
Oct 22, 2017 7:10 AM
Replying to Drew Craig
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Sure, why not? I'd say it's more the norm than to have a single concurrent project. Not all of them may be large, or in the same phase. As of now, I have one large project, several enhancements, and a couple just starting up.
Thank you very much for your help. Saving Changes...
Mahalmadane TouréEngineer| National Headquarters of Geology and Mines of Mali (Bamako)Mali
Oct 22, 2017 7:32 AM
Replying to Sergio Luis Conte
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.Here my "academic" answer: the amount of time a project manager have to allocate to perform project management activities for each project is 20% of total project duration. So, in the extremes, you can manage 5 projects at the same time. That is for organizations where you perform project management (not those where you have that title but in the field you are project leader/coordinator etc) or those where there is some grade of maturity in project management practices. You can consider a mean of 20%-35% in others. With that on mind you can estimate how much projects you can manage at the same time. If your organization culture is to perform micro-management then forget about it at least you are willing to accept "to work 24 hours per day and the night too".
Thank you very much for your help. Saving Changes...
As usual, it depends. Assuming you can do so without taking your eye off one or the other, then yes. If the projects are staggered such that you are primarily in a monitoring mode on one while you are focused on developing preliminary baselines for the other, then it is likely more feasible than if there are two projects at exactly the same point in their lifecycles.
The key is to acknowledge the cost of context switching and weigh that against the potential benefits of such concurrent work.
Kiron
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2 replies by Mahalmadane Touré and Stéphane Parent
Oct 22, 2017 6:30 PM
Mahalmadane Touré
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Thank you for your help Mr Kiron.
Oct 23, 2017 10:00 AM
Stéphane Parent
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Notwithstanding Kiron's answer, there are efficiency opportunities when you manage multiple projects.
For example, the more projects I manage, the less time I need to charge to each project when I do my weekly time sheets review or my weekly project issues review.
The cross-project view can also make you better aware of organizational issues.
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Anonymous
Oct 22, 2017 7:32 AM
Replying to Sergio Luis Conte
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.Here my "academic" answer: the amount of time a project manager have to allocate to perform project management activities for each project is 20% of total project duration. So, in the extremes, you can manage 5 projects at the same time. That is for organizations where you perform project management (not those where you have that title but in the field you are project leader/coordinator etc) or those where there is some grade of maturity in project management practices. You can consider a mean of 20%-35% in others. With that on mind you can estimate how much projects you can manage at the same time. If your organization culture is to perform micro-management then forget about it at least you are willing to accept "to work 24 hours per day and the night too".
Love your answer Sergio
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Oct 22, 2017 8:13 PM
Sergio Luis Conte
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Thank you very much. It is great for me to read this answer from a person I always read and take into my account his comments.
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Anonymous
Absolutely - but the magic answer as all hinted to it "It depends"
In my past life, in a chemical plant - operating environment, a project engineer would be responsible to manage up to 10 small-simple projects. Now in that industry, a small-simple project is at least $2 M in today's value and is usually longer than a year.
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1 reply by Mahalmadane Touré
Oct 22, 2017 6:30 PM
Mahalmadane Touré
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Thank you for your help.
Saving Changes...
Mahalmadane TouréEngineer| National Headquarters of Geology and Mines of Mali (Bamako)Mali
Thank you for your help. Saving Changes...
Mahalmadane TouréEngineer| National Headquarters of Geology and Mines of Mali (Bamako)Mali
Oct 22, 2017 9:47 AM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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Mahalmadane -
As usual, it depends. Assuming you can do so without taking your eye off one or the other, then yes. If the projects are staggered such that you are primarily in a monitoring mode on one while you are focused on developing preliminary baselines for the other, then it is likely more feasible than if there are two projects at exactly the same point in their lifecycles.
The key is to acknowledge the cost of context switching and weigh that against the potential benefits of such concurrent work.
Kiron
Thank you for your help Mr Kiron. Saving Changes...
Hi Mahalmadane, I would say the limiting factor that may restraint PM to manage a project is the scale of complexity & size. My highest record was to manage 11 schools construction projects at different locality at the same time with average construction period of 24 months. To efficiently deliver the role as PM in managing multiple projects, you require high performing team that is aligned with your mission to meet project timeline. You shall spend most of your time on meeting table & travelling.
