Project managers frequently ask if it is possible to manage multiple, simultaneous projects. The answer is it all depends. It all depends on the size and scope of the projects being managed.
Consider the following situations:
- A project manager responsible for the construction of a new 6-lane bridge over the Columbia River that consists of 250 construction workers, engineers and contractors with a budget of $250 million that needs to be completed within the next 6 months would have a full-time job managing the project schedules and budgets. In fact, this project manager on this project probably has a dozen or more junior project managers working under him or her to help manage the workload. It’s unlikely that this project manager would have to cycles to take on additional work.
- A project manager responsible for the consolidation of multiple data centers into one new state-of-the-art data center facility probably wouldn’t have any time to manage another project either.
- But consider a project manager who works for a company that installs widgets at client sites. The widget installation consists of a well-defined 30-hour work effort with a limited work breakdown, and all installers are thoroughly trained and experienced. This project manager would most likely manage multiple widget installation projects occurring throughout his or her assigned territory.
Each project is different from last and has its own set of requirements that require care and feeding by the project manager. How much time and attention the project manager needs to allocate to each project really depends on the size and scope of the project.
Another consideration before deciding whether a project manager can manage more than one project would be the project lifecycle. Project processes take varying amounts of time depending on where the project is in the lifecycle. It’s a well-known fact and generally agreed that the majority of a project manager’s time is, or should be, spent planning the project. Often the demands on a project manager’s time are reduced during the project’s execution and closing phases, especially on smaller, more routine projects.
Staggering project life cycles will help because most projects don’t require the same level of effort throughout the entire project life cycle. It would not be possible to initiate and plan more than 2 or 3 projects at the same time because a person can only process so much information at a time. Confusion would most likely reign and the requirements and project plans would tend to blur together. However, if the project manager was managing a project in the execution phase that required little monitoring and control, it might be possible to fire off another project while running another. Depending on how the project life cycles overlap, a project manager might be able to manage multiple projects.
So, when someone asks if it is possible to manage multiple concurrent projects, the answer is yes, maybe.