CHAPTER 1
The Art of Juggling
You may remember an act from the old Ed Sullivan show where a man takes a plate, balances it on the end of a long pole, and gives it a spin. Then he repeats the process with another plate, then another, and another until there are about eight plates spinning. During the rest of the act the man runs from pole to pole, shaking the poles carefully in turn to keep the plates spinning. The plate spinner is always just a second away from disaster.
That is what it means to juggle multiple projects. Normally, the study of project management focuses on managing a single project. Most available material on multiple projects focuses instead on time management and priority setting. These are vital skills. In fact, if you do not develop good time management and priority-setting skills, you will not be able to put the tools in this book to good use.
Now, assume you know how to set priorities, put first things first, organize workspace, and do all the other things you are supposed to do. After all that, you are still juggling seventeen different projects. All are important; all are job responsibilities; all have high payoff; and you start to feel like the drowning victim going down for the third time.
If you manage multiple projects, you are no stranger to stress. You may feel like the plate spinner just described. Frequently, multiple project managers end up working extra hours, feeling overloaded, and sometimes failing to achieve their goals.
There is a strategy that goes beyond time management and the basics of formal project management. It shows how to take multiple projects, put them on a timeline, determine resource requirements, handle emergencies, and put you in charge of your work, possibly for the first time in your life.
This concept is called portfolio management. The Juggler’s Guide to Managing Multiple Projects teaches how to apply this concept to an individual situation.
DEFINITIONS
Before moving on, examine these key definitions.
A project is a specific work assignment outside the normal job routine that has a planned end and a measurable accomplishment to achieve.
Work is the rest of the job to be accomplished while juggling projects. Work has no planned end to it.
A portfolio refers to a collection of projects comanaged under the same management umbrella.
When different people talk about managing multiple projects, they often mean different things. Meet three multiple project managers with very different situations and problems. Then explore their situations in more detail, and learn how the concept of portfolio management can work for them.
TASK-ORIENTED PROJECT PORTFOLIO
Task-oriented projects are relatively small in amount of work and time. Each project might take hours, or at most a day or two, if you could handle it in an uninterrupted fashion. That is not the case, however. Task-oriented projects are challenging because they are often numerous and because the person responsible already has a regular job to do full time.
Carolyn is the human resources manager for a thirty-person company. A one-person department, she’s responsible for benefits administration, payroll, compliance with federal and state regulations, hiring, records management, training administration, and personnel policy. She’s supposed to be available to consult with managers and supervisors on personnel matters, to help employees with the full range of human resource (including personal) issues, to report regularly to senior management, and to keep her department functioning smoothly. Right now, she’s working sixty-to-seventy-hour weeks just to keep current. She needs an assistant, but that is not likely in the current financial climate.
This is a sampling of her current project list.
Find a new health insurance carrier; the existing one just raised rates.
Arrange computer skills training for six new administrative assistants.
Coordinate with accounting to streamline the current payroll system.
Develop a new employee newsletter and management feedback program.
INDEPENDENT PROJECT PORTFOLIO
Independent project portfolios consist of projects that are not directly connected to one another. If one should fail (or succeed beyond expectations), it does not greatly affect the other projects in the portfolio. The challenge in managing independent project portfolios is that resources (people, tools, equipment, money) available to complete portfolios are normally at a fixed level. Planning and allocating those resources becomes easier when you use the right techniques.
Patrick is the publications director for a national trade association. The trade association publishes a monthly magazine for industry professionals, a quarterly journal of research data, annual industry surveys, highly technical management books, annual meeting volumes, and a variety of brochures and one-shot publications. He manages a staff of two writer/editors, one graphics designer, and two desktop publishing technicians.
Because the work his unit does is so different from the other work of the trade association, he has a difficult time explaining the demands put on his unit.
These are some of the issues that concern him.
The authors of his books and many of his articles are industry professionals, not writers. Sometimes their work requires heavy editing in order to be readable.
His authors are frequently late with their manuscripts, but he cannot miss his deadlines. This results in unplanned overtime and rush charges at the printer.
A variety of special projects, such as marketing brochures and tradeshow books, are assigned to his department at the last minute, further disrupting his schedule.
He’d like to have his department take better advantage of new technology to streamline the editorial and publishing processes, but he can’t find the time for training and conversion in his already packed schedule.
INTERDEPENDENT PROJECT PORTFOLIO
Interdependent project portfolios are large projects in themselves. Many of the tasks in the large project are so complex and time consuming that they are essentially projects in their own right. In an independent portfolio, the projects are not connected to each other; however, in an interdependent portfolio, they are very connected. The success of the entire portfolio depends upon the successful accomplishment of all the projects within it. The interdependent project portfolio includes both the issues of an independent portfolio and some special issues of its own.
Sarah manages the data processing center for a 300-person insurance company. With twenty staff members to supervise, a large mainframe computer, network file servers, a new Internet site, hundreds of personal computers throughout the company, and daily special project requests for new reports and service, it’s a demanding job. Sarah is on top of it, and her department has a well-earned reputation for quality.
The company has experienced remarkable growth over the past few years, so much so that it has now outgrown its old facility. It will be moving into a brand new facility in the next year. Sarah, in addition to her regular responsibilities, must coordinate the move of the computer center, a highly complex activity with the possibility of disaster if something major goes wrong. Since the move is going to happen anyway, Sarah thinks this might also be a good opportunity to upgrade the ten-year-old mainframe computer and internal network.
The move into the new building involves a number of projects that all fit together.
Create a backup strategy for all files and software to guarantee that no records will be lost.
Develop and implement a strategy to ensure that critical computer services are not interrupted during the move.
Plan and manage the physical move of the electronic components.
Plan and manage the move of the rest of the center.
Coordinate the purchase of new equipment and arrange for installation.
Arrange training for all affected staff.
Prepare manuals and documentation for the new system.
Which one of these three people—Carolyn, Patrick, or Sarah—has problems most similar to yours? (“All three at the same time” is a legitimate answer.) You will learn how to manage each of the three types of project portfolios in this book. The exercise on the next page will help you discover what type of portfolio you have, so you may concentrate on those chapters that will be most helpful to you.
EXERCISE
What Type of Project Portfolio Do You Have?
- Start by listing several of your multiple projects below. You do not need to be exhaustive at this point.
- _______________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________
- Approximately how long would it take to complete an average project assuming you could ignore everything else and focus on it?
______ Less than a day (probably task oriented) ______ Less than a week (task or independent) ______ Less than a month (independent) ______ Less than six months (independent or interdependent) ______ More than half a year (probably interdependent) - Approximately what portion of your day is required to complete your normal activities, and what portion is available for project work?
- My projects are primarily small one-shot activities.
TRUE Probably task oriented FALSE Independent or interdependent - My project is extremely large and is an out-of-the-ordinary situation for me.
TRUE Probably interdependent FALSE Independent or task oriented - The various projects in my portfolio are not primarily connected to each other, even though they may use the same resources to get accomplished.
TRUE Task oriented or independent FALSE Probably interdependent