A project is the group of related tasks between a start and an end date, though not everyone sees projects that way. The first step to better management of multiple projects is to get everyone to agree on what is or isn't
a project. Policies, objectives, on-going operations and even opinions can seem project-like but without clear starts, finishes and related tasks, they are not projects. Pet projects and
start-stop projects, may or may not be projects. They might be distractions when they tend to draw time and resources away from the organization's actual projects.
The tips that follow
will help to separate actual projects from on-going operations, non-projects and quasi-projects, and clear the way for the second and third steps toward managing multiple projects: developing project titles
and building a project inventory.
- How to avoid confusion between projects and other concepts.
The concept of what a project is can be confused with
mission statements, organizational objectives, directives, initiatives and a dozen
other terms that may be related to projects, but are not projects themselves. The simplest test is that a project will have a clear beginning
and end which would rule out mission statements, on-going operations, directives, initiatives and organizational objectives since they exist in perpetuity.
Directives and initiatives are usually made up of projects.
Consider a nonprofit that provides grants for example. It would not be unusual
to see a statement, call it a directive, that the organization plans to disburse annual amounts of a certain type of grant. Grants, however,
tend to be disbursed at intervals called "funding rounds" throughout the year. In this case, each funding round would be a project. Calling
the directive itself a "project" would make all the grant rounds appear as one large, formless project.
- Project Management for projects; operations management for on-going work.
Facilities management and information systems groups have projects and some they will refer to as "maintenance projects" without regard
for the difference between a maintenance project and maintenance as an on-going operation. True maintenance projects come to
closure so installing a new air conditioner on a building or bringing up a new operating system are projects. Regularly scheduled
preventive maintenance on the air conditioner or handling routine upgrades to an operating system are on-going work which is better suited to operations management than project management.
- Use caution with "start-stop" and "pet" projects.
Beside a start and a finish date, a project's tasks need to be related to one another, as when Task A needs to finish before Task B can start.
Start-stop projects, where one task can finish but the next task may or may not start, bend the concept of a project to the point of breaking.
Legal cases are an example of start-stop projects which, incidentally, is why project management has not made many inroads into the
legal profession. Start-stop projects have such indeterminate outcomes, like a civil case that might settle, go to trial, be dropped or drag
on that they are better managed by risk management and contingency planning than a schedule.
  Inadequate resources are another cause of start-stop projects. An organization that is understaffed will often
compensate by shifting personnel between one project and another. This erodes productivity as priorities shift from
project to project like flocks of starlings. If there is a silver lining it is that multiple project management techniques provide the justification for building up under-staffed organizations.
Pet projects, by comparison, are outside of the realm of project management since they exist because of a whim
rather than a mandate. Pet projects serve an individual's needs rather than the organization's and compete with
actual projects by siphoning off their resources. Pet projects extract a heavy financial toll in what financial managers call opportunity losses.
Start on the road to better multiple project management by using the tips above to separate projects from non-projects.
A helpful next step will be to check the quality of each project's
title since references to the project's title will be used throughout its development, and possibly beyond.
Turnkey Managing Multiple Projects is a consulting service that organizes multiple projects.
The Multiple Projects Skill Building Workshop provides learning and application of multiple project management techniques.
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