Dealing with different projects simultaneously can be a real headache for project managers and team members. This creates the necessity for a well-structured project plan that can prioritize tasks and manage all resource conflicts that may occur in a multi-project environment.

With this in mind, people created different multi-project management tools to help project managers deal with all the projects more efficiently. This article will show you how to build a multi-project management chart to help you manage multiple projects with the project schedule or time management.

Along with being a powerful tool to help with project planning, there are several reasons why multi-project management is indispensable for a project manager leading multiple projects at the same time. The most important one is to guarantee that the business delivers the final projects and all the details on time.

To do this, multi-project management helps assign tasks to the project team and sort them by importance, ensuring that the project can be completed as quickly as possible. Moreover, project management tools also focus on accomplishing the project’s goals, ensuring that the company achieves satisfactory results at the end of several projects.

There are tons of tips that can help you when managing multiple projects, no matter if you are a project manager or any other team member. These tips, when correctly applied, can avoid many problems for the entire team, like late project schedules and issues with resource allocation, for example.

Here are some of the most common tips that can help you deal with multiple projects simultaneously. Be sure to analyze each one carefully to understand how they can impact your multi-project management tool and business in general.

Start Planning Early

The first thing you might want to do when managing multiple projects is to start writing down and planning the details before the other project team members start working. As a project manager, you are responsible for planning all aspects and guaranteeing that problems won’t occur along the way.

This is why planning early is so important. Several projects mean several potential outcomes. Thus, a carefully done analysis is the first step for achieving desired results in a multi-project environment.

Carefully Manage Your Time

Time management is essential to deliver your projects on time. As long as you keep it organized and well-thought-out, the chances of problems occurring are low.

Since you have different projects and deadlines to worry about, you must create a time frame considering all the critical points like project size, number of team members, etc. To guarantee good time efficiency, the project managers usually highlight all the due dates in the multi-project management software.

Prioritize the Right Tasks

Another crucial part of good project management is to have a well-thought-out task list. Remember that your multiple projects are usually related to each other, so the tasks might impact more than one project.

With this in mind, you must analyze them and decide which task order is the best for optimized work. A good trick is to prioritize individual tasks. This way, you minimize the time spent on non-important tasks.

Create Detailed Tasks 

Since working on multiple projects simultaneously can be really confusing, another indispensable tip is creating tasks with detailed descriptions. Doing this will help the multiple project teams understand what to do and to whom that task is assigned.

An organized workstation will also impact the time required to manage multiple projects. Don’t forget to include due dates for deliverables and other necessary information in all tasks.

Keep the Project Management Software Always Updated

The entire team must be consistent in updating the project board as soon as possible. Everything must be communicated and updated, whether it was a significant task completion or just a slight change.

This is a crucial feature for successful project management and a successful project. Updating everything in real-time allows the managers to evaluate each team's performance and better understand where the project’s current state and progress.

There are two main options if you don’t know which software to use when managing multiple projects. Here we will explain the difference between them:

Microsoft Excel

This is one of the best tools for good project management. Its set of tools is one of the biggest ones you can find in any software that allows you to construct a project dashboard, with tons of features that let you edit even the smallest details.

Also, Microsoft Office allows you to do much more than project management, being the perfect tool for almost any business task. This way, you can save money that would be invested in specialized software.

Specialized Software

The other option is buying specialized software to track your multiple projects. They usually come with great features and sets of tools as well, but they can be costly.

The biggest problem with specialized software is that, along with having a high price, it can only be used for one type of task or document. This way, you will have to buy different software for different cases.

Considering all the aspects above, we believe that the best software you can use to manage multiple projects is Microsoft Excel. It has an incredibly easy-to-use interface with many features that can help in all your projects.

If you don’t have a Microsoft Office activation key, you can find one at RoyalCDKeys for a considerably lower price when compared to Microsoft Store. This way, you save money that can be used in other parts of your business.

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