In today’s economic downturn and fast-paced business world, it’s likely that you will have more than one job or one thing to work on at any given time. For you to continually succeed, financially, you need to know how to manage multiple projects at once. This starts with assigning priorities to everything you work on, writing detailed plans, and keeping project information together. You can practice working on dreaded projects first, transitioning between projects when you get stuck, and reducing pointless tasks.
By definition, project management is the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge and experience to achieve specific project objectives according to the project acceptance criteria within agreed parameters.
First of all, you should know that in project management, there are three solid pillars, namely, planning, control and communication. When you are managing other people, it is good to know how they communicate, encourage team work, make sure you delegate and let people work.
Know that planning and monitoring of several projects is a multiple project management. So, let me lay emphasis on an original execution of what a multiple project on business consolidation looks like. Aside writing for the company I write for now; I have also worked as an executive business development and marketing executive for one print media that has another company under it – PR company to be precise. I was, however, in their business and marketing department in their print media. One day, the MD of the company came up with this idea of merging with another bigger company. As we all know, companies often merge to strengthen operational and financial position, to increase markets or productivity. Some mergers contractually merge companies by dissolving the absorbed company, which was what happened here.
These two companies have all been in existence for almost a decade but later had issues with their production and marketing departments. You know, publishing can be capital intensive, especially the poor management and poor staffing as a result of lack of efficient team workers. Their major problem was lack of enough media visibility. Most of those duties were left for marketing department alone, which obviously must include advert department that was somehow neglected and redundant. The companies then took the way to liquidation in that they no longer generate enough funds or meet certain targets in terms of their initial profit margin.
Financially, the companies suffered inadequacy of capital to run them and the printing arm of the company also suffered production strength which later dropped too. Their production which was formerly on a daily basis moved to a weekly thing. Finally, they could no longer meet the demand of the buyers, could no longer pay staff and with much accumulated back logs of debts, they were at the verge of packing up until another bigger media mogul and a publisher came into the picture. He had seen our company and the other one walk the fortunes paths in publishing. Then they were seen as a big rivalry despite their small but with good writers. He came up with this idea of consolidation and possibly merging together.
The process of business consolidation is often associated with mergers and acquisitions. I am telling this story to illustrate and to show how multiple projects work too. For small rival companies with a few shareholders and management team, the board of directors of both companies came together and approved of the deal. The consolidation took place and both companies will then start operating under company the name of one of the two companies while the other company, at this juncture, perhaps will or will not ceases to exist, depending on what they agreed on.
Automatically, the new company’s policy will crop up and if it’s not conducive for some of us coming from the former, we will have no choice but to quit, which was exactly what some of my colleagues and I did.
Meanwhile, the following are the seven project management strategies to manage and track multiple projects at the same time.
- Plan before starting anything
When you manage multiple projects, not much should be left to chance. It is important to create a successful project plan ahead for every possible scenario and have contingency plans in case things go wrong. You must set reasonable expectations for yourself and for the team in order to be successful in all fronts.
You and your project team will be exhausting mentally in capabilities while going back and forth in different tasks. So, you must incorporate some break periods in your plan where the workload is minimal. You should inculcate a conducive working environment too for the team.
- Write out a detailed process for each project.
Every project will entail multiple phases, steps, or aspects. Make a habit of breaking projects down into specific chunks of work. Write these out and make a plan for how you will work through each step of the process. Assign a time limit for each task and stick to that, but overestimate how long it will take so you have some cushion.
For example in my illustration, the publisher has weighed the pros and cons of acquiring that PR and other outfits and proceeded. At the end of the day, it was worth it. It really played out well but if you have a detailed guide to what needs to be done before you start, it helps guard against forgetting something along the way.
Again, don’t be afraid to go overboard in details because the more you expand things out, the clearer it will be what you need to get done. Plus you will feel like you are accomplishing more as you work through each small part of the project.
- Keep important information in a single, designated place.
Storing vital information on your various projects in one location helps ensure you never lose track of it. This could mean one notebook or spreadsheet, or one specific folder for all project documents. This single place could have sections for basic info on all the projects and specific info on each individual project.
If it doesn’t make sense to store information from separate projects in a central place, at least be sure to store all of the information for each single project in one place.
When you are working with members of a team who all need access to the set of documents, make sure they have the passwords necessary or copies of any physical documents.
Once a project is finished, consider trashing its documents (if it makes sense to do so) or relocating all of the project’s information. Maybe you would never throw away or delete work you’ve done, but you can at least store it in a separate place designated specifically for finished items.
- Adjust your plans through regular review.
It does not make sense to stick to the original plan no matter what. Being flexible is an extremely important attribute that an effective leader must have. When you manage multiple projects, there are several unknown variables that can sometimes change your entire outlook.
The smart thing to do is to begin with a project kickoff meeting, hold regular review sessions where you update the original plan in order to successfully complete all your projects.
- Know when to prioritize and delegate
A good leader knows when to take charge and when to trust her team members. You must have a relationship of trust with your team and delegate tasks and assign them when you have too much on your plate.
Prioritize and delegate
Not all tasks are equally important or urgent. You need to prioritize your tasks according to their impact and urgency, and focus on the ones that are most critical for your project to be successful. You also need to delegate some tasks to your team members based on their skills, availability, and preferences. Delegating not only frees up your time, but also empowers your team and improves their performance.
- Stay focused
While you balance multiple projects at once, you are bound to give less attention to the task you are currently occupied with. In order to become an effective project manager, you must stay focused on the task at hand with the help of project management software for small teams.
One way of achieving this is to assign a specific time to each project according to their priority. In this way, you can ensure that your attention remains undivided.
- Communicate often with your team members
Effective communication in projects is, perhaps, one of the most important aspects of project management. Many successful project management methodologies like Scrum and Kanban focus on creating an open space where every single thing is shared with the whole team.
Below are ways you communicate your team members….
- Email: you can send updates or request information from team members. When sending project updates, list the appropriate team members so that everyone is up-to-date.
- Messaging: instant messaging is a quick and easy way to communicating with team members. This is useful for project managers who work remotely.
- Face-to-face meetings: face-to-face meetings are a great way to building team relationships and resolving any issues that may arise. If possible, schedule regular project meetings to keep everyone in the loop.
While managing multiple projects, this becomes even more important, as the team can know about any potential problems and discuss their solutions before any major delays in the projects occur.
When you have good workers, a group of people can get more done than you can all alone. If you tend to do all of the work but delegating is an option, consider passing off some of the work. If you have workers available to you, don’t let their help go to waste.
If you are in charge, it’s still your responsibility to make sure everything is getting done. Set some times that you will check in on progress and then leave your team alone except during those specific times.
In conclusion, both business mergers and consolidations help reduce the number of competitors in the market. This can help produce a variety of positive results for the company, such as companies gaining a larger market presence because there are fewer companies competing for customers in that particular product or service.
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