Does this sound familiar from your experience of managing multiple projects in parallel: inefficient scheduling, employee overload, recurring cost overruns and / or quality issues? This article outlines key success factors for multi-project management which will help you tackle and greatly reduce your pain points. You will learn what leads to successful multi-project management or program management in the following chapters:
Definition Multi-Project Management
Multi-project management comprises all projects of an organizational unit – i.e. many projects are implemented in parallel and with the same resource pool.
For differentiation: we define the distinction between multi-project management and program management as follows:
Reading tip: 8 tips on how to succeed in program management.
A multi-project management example is the IT department in a bank. There, many people work on different projects that are not (necessarily) interrelated:
This IT project portfolio of the bank is implemented in parallel using the same resource pool but does not serve a shared program goal. This is why we speak of multi-project management rather than program management.
Reading tip: Microsoft Project Management Tool Overview
If you are working in a multi-project environment, you will be familiar with the number one challenge: you must implement many projects in parallel while drawing on the same resource pool.
In addition, smooth functioning is often hampered by the circumstances of the multi-project environment:
It is a fact that: the sheer number of parallel projects makes for regular surprises. This leads to the problems listed at the beginning:
Frequent causes of these problems in multi-project management are:
If you succeed in reducing these problems, or even removing them as far as possible, your projects will be more successful.
The following list of 7 success factors in multi-project management will help you.
Read this article and find out more about the meaning of project success.
Keep track of the many parallel projects. You will only succeed in this if you use a central database once you have reached a certain number of projects. The central database will permit you to produce reports as required for your information or for informed decisions.
The chart below shows the different possible perspectives on the project portfolio. In addition to a central project list and resource overview, the illustration provides the following information on the portfolio:
Learn more about the Project Status Report.
Underneath, you can find the tools for controlling the individual projects: for resource coordination, project monitoring, and data exchange with the controlling department.
With a central solution for project, portfolio and resource management (PPRM), using PPM project tools, you can track all information from the aggregated overview down to the smallest detail. If you are looking to implement an environment of this kind, the following tip can help:
Our tip: In a multi-project environment, it is better to start with limited functionality. Build it up step by step. This is much more likely to lead to success than trying to launch with full functionality right from the start and then fail spectacularly.
We will elaborate on the possibilities and the benefits of such a paradise PPM environment (we call it “The PPRM Paradise”) further below in this article, following the success factors.
Our tip: Make portfolio meetings time-limited. It is impossible to look at all projects and resources each time. Therefore, make sure that you define traffic light indicators and other criteria that will allow you to effectively filter the right projects and resources.
Reading tip: How to manage your multi-project environment with project portfolio meetings
If you want to administer your environment for multi-project management efficiently, your projects must meet certain standards in structure and setup. In addition, you need to define processes for planning and updating your projects.
As decisions have cross-project effects, controlling for all projects should follow the same intervals – using data that is as recent as possible. Project managers need to know what to do when. And how to do it. That is why they need the appropriate training and supervision.
Your Project Management Office (PMO) should serve as a hub of communication between project managers, team leaders, decision-makers and controllers. It should be responsible for the efficient flow of information and the continuous improvement of your project management maturity level.
PMO functions and improvements could for instance include:
The benefits of a well-established and accepted PMO should be:
Our tip: It is vital for your PMO to have backing from top management. However, it must not be perceived as a supervisory body. Instead, it has to give clear proof of its value to the project teams. This will ensure acceptance.
Reading tip: Successful PMO Setup in 4 Simple Steps
To avoid having to deal with too many projects at once, you should concentrate on the important and urgent ones. Therefore, set priorities in line with corporate strategy. Start your projects according to these priorities.
We urgently recommend a way of making prioritization easier. Create a decision matrix to differentiate between different project types. The design of this project-worthiness analysis needs to be individual for every company.
In such a decision matrix, you can categorize projects by type (minor / normal / major project) to determine which methods to use.
| Criteria | Operation | Minor Project | Project | Selection |
| Number of areas involved | 1 area | Up to 3 areas | Over 3 areas | Up to 3 areas |
| Size of entire project team | 2 – 5 people | Over 6 people | Over 12 people | Over 6 people |
| Resource requirements | 10 – 30 man-days | 30 – 100 man-days | Over 100 man-days | 30 – 100 man-days |
| Capital expenditure | Under 10.000 € | 10.000 – 50.000 € | Over 50.000 € | 10.000 – 50.000 € |
| Duration | 1 – 3 months | 4 – 10 months | Over 10 months | 4 – 10 months |
| Inherent complexity | Low | Medium | High | High |
| Novelty for project team | Low | Medium | High | Low |
| Quality risk | Low | Medium | High | Medium |
| External impact | Low | Medium | High | Low |
| Recommendation: | Minor Project |
Project-worthiness analysis for distinguishing between operations and project types
Use this simple approach to determine when an initiative should be considered a project. Only then is it to be added to the project portfolio selection process.
Design your individual project-worthiness analysis according to your requirements. Possible criteria for this could be:
Our tip: Download our free Project-worthiness analysis template (MS Excel). You can easily adapt the template to your needs.
Depending on the rating, you need to use different controlling methods. This is about putting in the administrative and controlling effort appropriate to the size of the undertaking.
Make your prioritization independent of the project type. You can determine the importance by using previously established drivers.
Our tip: Make sure you actually use the most resources for the most important projects.
Reading tip: Project portfolio management: 7-step guide
Strategic resource planning, also known as capacity planning, has one aim: the predictive allocation of employees with the necessary skills.
You also need to ensure that the appropriate employees will be available at the right time to implement strategically relevant projects.
With inadequate capacity planning, you run risks such as:
Strategic resource planning done properly can gain you a variety of benefits.
These include, for instance:
Our tip: For successful strategic capacity planning, a strong PMO with backing from top management is vital. In addition, you need a suitable tool environment corresponding to the number of projects and resources.
Reading tip: Important success factors of capacity planning.
Tactical resource management is the process of coordination between project manager and team leader. Project managers assign resources to the tasks of their projects. In doing so, they hope to actually get the team members they planned with. Where those team members are deployed in the end is the decision of the respective team leaders.
Tactical resource planning is anything but easy for project managers and team leaders because:
Reading tip: Capacity planning tools: Enterprise comparison and selection guide
The graphic below shows the people required for three projects on the left. On the right, you can see that the capacity of the available people is reduced due to absences and operations. As a result, the remaining project availability is no longer enough to serve all projects fully (Project A fully, Project B a little less and Project C significantly less than requested by the project manager).
Please note the following: In resource planning only complete planning is good planning. To achieve this, you should mark the following points:
Our tip: Better to be complete and slightly unspecific in your planning than specific but incomplete. Only complete planning is good planning. And get used to the idea that resource planning will not always be 100 per cent specific. Outside interferences tend to come before you can adjust your planning.
You might like our article about quick Resource Planning Implementation or consider getting our free eBook on tactical resource planning below.
The steering committee for multi-project management or programs issues its targets at regular intervals. This includes, for instance, directives concerning the important milestones at the interfaces.
These targets are allocated to the corresponding projects (top-down). And the project managers must implement them.
Our tip: Use “soft” links between the tasks of different projects. These have the advantage that project managers can see the resulting scheduling conflicts directly when making changes. However, this happens without changing their own plan, which is important. After all, project managers stay in control of their own planning.
Reading tip: Successful program management with R&D example
In performing their tasks, project managers and controllers are reliant on each other’s data.
This makes it necessary to provide for system integration between both worlds via integration middleware. Without an automatic transfer of data in both directions, two things would be impossible:
The basic integration scenarios are the following:
The advantages of such an integration are as follows:
Our tip: The benefit of such a tool integration increases along with the number of projects and updates. The integration of PPM, ERP and other systems can be simple at first. It can be gradually extended as required.
Multi-project management (and the directly related portfolio management) allows you to, for example:
The joint coordination of all projects at the company (via project portfolio management), with a view to identifying mutual dependencies and using the shared resource pool, enables you to be more successful and efficient in implementing the entire portfolio and the individual projects.
There is no set rule stating from which number of projects a company needs multi-project management. It depends on various factors, such as the size and complexity of the projects, the number of employees and departments involved and the available resources. If your company carries out multiple projects in parallel and has difficulty keeping an overview, setting priorities and using resources efficiently, it can be helpful to implement multi-project management.
Even today, many companies work exclusively with Office tools (e.g. Microsoft Excel), text documents and e-mail attachments in multi-project management. In a small environment, this may still be feasible, but when the project portfolio grows, this approach quickly reaches its limits. The section of the article you are currently reading is meant precisely for those people who detect these limits at their company.
“Paradise” conditions in multi-project management mean: your project, portfolio and resource environment (PPRM) works with maximum efficiency. You are always fully informed about your project landscape. You are spared a lot of effort, unnecessary cost, loss of time and coordination mishaps. The data on which you base your decisions is always up to date, and you can make the best possible use of your company’s resources.
In a nutshell: In your complex multi-project landscape, you have exactly the right environment to make informed decisions.
“The PPRM Paradise” is the concept of such an optimal environment for enterprise-wide project, program, portfolio and resource management – tailored to individual customer requirements. When implemented effectively, it gives all roles involved the good feeling to always have everything under control within their project environment: the PMO, senior management, team leaders, the project managers and the finance department.
The PPRM Paradise provides a good overview of your multi-project landscape with for example:
The PMO is meant to improve processes in multi-project management. If you wish to implement the PPRM Paradise as a centralized tool environment with the appropriate processes for PPM activities at your company, this is a task best managed by the PMO.
To maintain an overview in the multi-project environment and to exercise a controlling influence, you urgently need good project portfolio management. A portfolio dashboard serves as a tool for monitoring and controlling the project portfolio to top management and the decision-making bodies. Using important KPIs, the status of the portfolio is clearly presented. With the appropriate tool, it is possible to zoom in on the details of individual projects from here.
The central project list offers the following advantages for your multi-project management environment:
The standardized process for project initiation offers the following benefits in multi-project management.
Portfolio management software with resource scenarios offers you the following benefits for your PPM environment:
The environment for optimal individual project management offers the following benefits for your PPM environment:
For higher-level control of several individual projects, there is program or multi-project management. For this, it is necessary to summarize important information from the individual projects, such as milestones, bottom-up at the push of a button. The goal is to show the information in one easy-to-read plan. In addition, it must be possible to display deadline dependencies between the projects and to import deadlines top-down from the program level.
The possibility to control programs offers you the following benefits:
The appropriate tool for team resource planning for team leaders offers the following benefits for your multi-project management:
Team members are in the best position to estimate the effort necessary for their tasks. Hence, modern team management is moving more and more in this direction: team members should collaborate on detailed planning in the context of work management and, ideally, do it themselves. Moreover, they should provide detailed information on how far they have progressed with their tasks.
There are suitable tools for this that can become part of the PPM solution through integration. This makes it possible to work in the tools for work management and project management in parallel, and honest estimates for planning are conducive to project success.
An intuitive time tracking interface offers the following benefits for your multi-project management:
To ensure the finance department receives the data it requires, appropriate specifications must be made (cost, project, phase structure, etc.). When implementing your PPM environment, you can have these taken into account. This gives you the basis enabling you to submit your forecast to controlling at the push of a button thanks to the integration of the ERP and PPM systems – without having to search and copy! It is also possible to forward actual costs to other departments that may need them.
Appropriate reports and a good reporting process are the backbone of project controlling. These enable you to systematize regular communication in projects. Automated project management reports provide a repeatable format for populating reports with data quickly at the push of a button. They enable efficient support of the entire project life cycle and optimal control of projects.
The connection of the individual modules mentioned above to a powerful and advanced PPM environment is an essential point. No PPM tool in the market offers all the described possibilities out of the box. By integrating various tools which are best suited for their respective purposes (e.g., ERP, PPM, CRM, work management, etc.), you maximize the benefits of the integrated overall solution.
We have already discussed the benefits of system integration above in Success Factor 7 for multi-project management.
The first step – even before you get started with one of the three possible avenues – will always be: create a central project list in a suitable database-supported PPM tool. With many parallel projects, this is a much better option than an Excel list that needs to be updated manually on an ongoing basis. You will not be successful in multi-project management without a central overview of all projects.
Make sure your central project list really includes all projects. What is not on the list must not exist in the company either.
Based on this premise, there are three possible ways to further detail and improve your project management environment – via:
Reading tip: The approach is described in the article “Project Management Implementation – 3 Ways to Get Started”
Up to this point, the PPRM Paradise has been completely independent of the technology chosen. The only important thing is to store your project data in a central database. This ensures that there is a single source of truth rather than different versions of files over which nobody has a real overview.
Below is a brief overview of the technologies we at TPG The Project Group can use to implement the concept of the PPRM Paradise for you. Of course, implementing a similar PPM landscape is also possible with other environments and tools.
This article has explained why multi-project management ranks among the more difficult disciplines. And why this can have consequences for everyday project management.
You have also learned about 7 key multi-project management success factors which are necessary for mastering the challenges of multi-project environments:
An important topic for successful multi-project management is a powerful tool environment based on centralized data storage and the integration of third-party systems. The section on the PPRM Paradise has introduced you to the arguments for this.
Our final tip: Sign up for our bi-weekly blog newsletter with information on more practical articles, eBooks, etc. to improve your project management maturity level.
Do you have any questions? We look forward to hearing from you via the contact form or another channel.