How Many Projects Do You Manage At The Same Time?

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Project Managers may have to manage too many projects at once.

So, how many projects can a project manager control?

After completing a project plan, the project manager has the important function of following up and communicating progress to stakeholders. If the project manager cannot find the required time, the project management capacity is full.

Make a to-do list to figure this out.

The list should include at least the following headings:

1- To get information about the work of the project team members. Process data from the team onto the plan and have an insight into progress.

2- Reflecting the deviations in the plan according to the incoming data and seeing the effect of the deviations on the future of the project.

3- Identifying preventive or corrective actions to reduce deviations.

4- Notifying stakeholders affected by the change.

5- Reviewing upcoming risks and notifying those responsible.

6- Analyzing new risks and updating risk plans.

7- Preparing the progress report of the project.

8- To raise the issues that need to be discussed with the customers, sponsors and team members and to hold the necessary meetings.

Go over this to-do list for each of your projects. If you can’t find the time to complete the contents of this list for your projects in a week, it is a sign that you are facing a workload that is beyond your capacity. If you can complete all the steps and reflect the changes in the future, you are ahead of the project and you are managing the project.

To understand whether you are actually managing projects, ask yourself the following question: “Can I predict the future of this project? Is the project under my control? If your answer is “no”, identify the deficiencies in the to-do list above and try to fix the problems.