24 July 2009

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Quick Quiz

By Barbee Davis, MA, PHR, PMP

My manager constantly overloads me with projects. How can I get her to see that I’ve reached my capacity?

A. Refuse to work on more than eleven projects at once, then select your favorites.

B. Hire a third-party contractor to help you, and present your manager with the bill.

C. Do fewer project management processes on each project to save yourself time.

D. Track your project management work just like other project team activities.

Answer: D. Track your project management work just like other project team activities.

Let’s admit it: we all sometimes try to save time by not documenting our own project management work. But if creating and managing the project documents and processes aren’t activities that are written down and figured into the project schedule, it’s easy for functional managers to underestimate the time it takes to do them.

Small Organizations – In the small-scale workplace, it is common for the project manager and the project work team to be just one person – you. When creating your WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), be sure to include the work you will do to manage the project as well as the effort you will spend to complete the actual work of the project. This helps both you and your manager know the true length of the project schedule.

Large Organizations – Here, the project manager will probably helm one project and not be expected to perform any of the work activities of the project. However, the extensive scope of the project means you must still formally plan out what you will do and when. Even when you devote all of your time to management, it is still easy to forget to create and maintain the important planning and tracking documents to guide you. You may also overlook some processes that you may have skipped on simpler projects.

Mid-sized Organizations – Here is where project managers are often overwhelmed. Frequently, they were promoted due to their skills in the field, and now they may be expected to oversee 5-7 projects, or more. And, because of their expertise, they may also assign themselves a portion of the WBS tasks, especially if no one else on the team can complete them as effectively.

One of the fastest ways to have your project fail, or at least be seriously delayed, is to assign yourself project work. If a problem arises, while you apply yourself to solving it, your portion of the work sits untouched.

Three Hints for Managing Multiple Projects:

1. Create a separate deliverable, or section, in your WBS containing your project management tasks, and then estimate, sequence and track them. You may be unaware of how much time you spend on them.

2. Rely on a tool such as Microsoft Project^® or similar products. They allow you to add a section of activities for your project management tasks and then easily remove or hide them for customer reports.

3. Use the tool feature that allows you to gather all of the project management activities for separate projects into one master project, and link each task back to its original project file. Updating the activity in one place also updates it in the other.

Now you can view daily charts showing your personal activities across all projects that day.

Once you document and have visual representations of how much of your time is committed, you can easily show your manager when you’ve reached the limit of how many projects you can handle at once.

Barbee Davis, MA, PHR, PMP, is a reviewer for the global PMI Registered Education Provider Review Team. She owns Davis Consulting and is a published author, speaker, writer of training materials and an innovator in presentation skill workshops for corporate trainers. She holds a Black Belt in MS Project and teaches at the university level. Ms. Davis encourages your questions or comments.