Managing Multiple Projects

Course Overview

Handling several projects at once means more than dealing with just multiple schedules; it involves multiple risks, multiple stakeholders, and multiple functional managers who allocate resources. The key to managing multiple projects expertly is to recognize priorities and delegate wisely – not an easy feat in today’s complex environment. To do that successfully, you need to understand what makes up your workload, as well as how risk, human resources, and schedules must be integrated.

This two-day course presents techniques for identifying what constitutes your individual portfolio, establishing priorities, sharing resources across multiple projects, and managing your day-to-day responsibilities. If you are a project manager, team leader, or technical staff member (and understand work breakdown structure and basic network diagramming), you’ll learn the science – seasoned with a dash of art – of applying your managerial energy effectively.

Key Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Create an effective prioritization process to focus your work effort
• Conduct an accurate assessment of the supporting capabilities of the work environment
• Create an effective conflict management approach
• Develop a plan to leverage the commonalities among the projects in your portfolio
• Establish a resource management plan for successfully implementing multiple projects
• Apply the tools of risk management, change management, resource management, and communication management across multiple projects

Course Outline

Analysis of Personal Environment

• Identify signs of overload
• Identify personal, professional, and organizational commitments
• Baseline work demands
• Identify and describe prioritization techniques

Assessing Organizational Environment

• Assess organizational project management maturity
• Assess organizational support
• Explain how to align projects with organizational goals and priorities
• Identify organizational resources, tools, methodologies, etc.
• Identify organizational processes
  
  • Project selection and governance
  • Project management methodology

Relationship Management

• Differentiate between managing and leading
• Explain relationship awareness theory
• Identify approaches to managing conflict
• Explain sources of influence
• Describe strategies for communication

Planning for Multiple Projects

• Identify key project management tools
• Describe multiple project scheduling considerations
• Explain how to create a master schedule
• Describe how to prioritize projects in regards to resources
• Explain how to assign and negotiate for resources
• Explain how to plan for managing risks, changes, and communication in a multiple project environment

Executing Multiple Projects

• Differentiate between single and multiple projects execution
• Explain critical chain concepts
• Describe methods of resource leveling
• Describe methods of managing the schedule, the risks, and the scope in the multiple project environment