By
Sreenivasa Hassan Jayaram
Manager-Projects, Jones Lang LaSalle India, Bangalore, Karnataka
Project Management
In our day today’s working life, we are completely reliant on and propped tomany things, it is quite easy to focus on only one Project work for the completion. In most business corporations, Project Managers are likely to manipulate between multiple projects, without allowing anything fall through the crashes.
Although this can be challenging, it’s not impossible.Managing multiple Projects can be possible in today’s workplace provided if they follow few steps. As companies attempt to keep costs in check, the manpower to fully and comfortably so that the staff of the projects may not exit the company, the same time, new projects are constantly being added to company’s backlog in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency. The mixture of these factors increases the focus on project managers, and their ability to get things done in an effective, efficient and timely manner.
Along with everything what we are doing, it is required to understand and move forward to deal with and to make the project fit when new projects load are imposed on the shoulders. The company will not be interested in hearing the excuses when the load of the Project increases, during this time we have to help ourselves and to manage the multiple projects.
1. Launching the top Priority Activities
It is repeatedlyappears as if every project is the uppermost priority for the company’s managers. Everything has to be done accurately right now and below budget. However, some projects have a greater potential for benefit than others. Those should be the uppermost precedence ones. While it might seem that all projects are important for managers, the reality is somewhat different and it is something elseand it is required to find out which ones are more important than others.
It is very much necessary to establish the priorities by ourselves, when priorities have not been given clearly. If we look at the various projects from the viewpoint of potential benefit to the company, it would make it clear which ones are the most important ones. The Project Manager should not make the mistake of only thinking about financial benefit, as other benefits can ultimately accrue to a greater overall advantage to the company. Having open communications with company directors will help to establish priorities.
2. Plan the schedules
If there are several critical items, from several different projects, that are all due at the same time, definitely it finds much stressed and it requires to stretch the time of the Project. So it is better to create one master plan, with all the critical milestones on all the projects on it. By this we can fit the various schedules together and look for conflicts earlier.
Planning this way helps ensure that there will not be overburdening any of the resources, including ourselves. It needs to ensure that each department, work center or individual that is involved in any of those projects is scheduled in such a way that they can get everything done within the indicated timeline. The advantage of doing this we can easily manage the multiple Projects with only on Project Manager instead of having each project managed by a separate Project Manager.
3. Manage your team’s time;your time will be managed automatically
Schedule your team member’s time and assign the proper work and guide your team member to work on the particular task which need to be done and when they need to be done, instead of investing the time in terms of percentage on the particular project. When it comes to your own personal work schedule, and the work schedules of your team members, schedule your time as if it was all one big project. The project has to be balanced in such a way as to get all the tasks done.Time invested in managing your time is the best time spent. You need to go into every day with a plan. Granted, things will happen to try and destroy that plan, but having that plan puts you a leg up on that day. When you don’t have a plan, the day manages you, taking you where it will, which probably isn’t where you want to go.A very important part of managing time and delegating properly is to realize the importance of any one activity or problem. There are those who will bring every decision to you, expecting you to make it for them. Empower people to make their own decisions; then you don’t have to.Often, we can get caught up in things that are urgent, but not really important. How did those things become urgent? Many times, it’s because somebody didn’t do what they should have, when they should have. If that’s the case, put it back on them and let them run around in circles taking care of it; don’t let it become your problem.
4. Back to Basics and implement the present technology
It is very difficult to remember each and every task of your project. Write it down on your Project Dairy and a reminder of to do list in your computer system, which helps in losing of activities and getting it done. This is even more important when managing multiple projects. The more areas you are working on, the more details to keep track of. If you depend on your memory, you might remember it eventually; but eventually might be too late. Create the checklists. Checklists are a great way to make sure that everything gets done. Every task that gets assigned and every detail that needs to be completed should appear somewhere on a checklist. That way, you don’t have to remember them.
5. Planning Execution and Communication
Make sure that you Plan well and communicate with every team, every day. This includes all the stake holders of the Project. During execution any kind of abnormalities, any changes has to be communicated to the relevant stake holder and take the necessary approvals whenever required. At the same time, it gives the team members an opportunity to identify risks early and tell you about any problems they are having.If you want something done, you need to check on it. People will do what is expected and inspected for the correctness.
6. Don’t allow anyone to step in to your Project
There are always those who have their own agenda. These people don’t see you as a manager who is getting projects done for the company,they see you as a resource for their agenda. Watch out for them. You have enough work to do without taking care of them. Another way that people try to manage you is by telling you what to do and when to do it. Granted, your boss has this right, but he and his bosses are the only ones who do, especially if they have already established your priorities. If you are the project manager, then you need to manage the project. That starts with managing your own workload.
Success of the Project Management is based on the above factors by which multiple projects can be handled easily. It requires focus and dedication to manage and complete the tasks available in the Project.
Reference and Acknowledgement
[1] Project Management Professionals http://www.pmchampion.com/blog
[2] Author Mike Mirshamshttp://goarticles.com/author/Mike-Mirshams/1183322
We at engineeringcivil.com are thankful to Sir Sreenivasa Hassan Jayaram for submitting this to us.
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