Multiple Projects

Hi Abdallah,
please clarify your question.
It is hard to answer the question "How you manage single project?" too.
What problems do you want to discuss?
Best Regards,
Vladimir

Dear Abdallah,

You can google "Program Management" or "Portfolio Management" and you can find plenty of reading material to increase your knowledge in the area of managing multiple projects.

The processes are already identified in Standards published by the Project Management Institute. You can buy them directly from www.pmi.org.

Best Regards,

Samer

I believe managing "multiple projects" is the same as managing a single project.

Multiple activities - for a WBS or a single Project

Multiple Projects - for an enterprise.

maybe the question here is "Resources"; How do you manage "multiple projects" using limited resources? (There would be no problem if resources are unlimited!).

If your projects are not related in any way either by shared resources or activity links you are better off by keeping them separate or “Stand Alone”.

If your projects are related to each other then you should keep them in "Project Groups". This can be done in any Primavera product except Primavera Contractor.

The main difference would be the activity count per group limit.
1.     For SureTrak 10,000 activities
2.     For P3 100,000 activities
3.     For P6 almost unlimited

Another limiting factor to consider would be how many people can modify the database at the same time.
1.     For SureTrak Network Installation 1 user can modify the database at the same time.
2.     For P3 as more than 3 users are modifying the database at the same time it becomes unstable (from previous references under other topics on PP forum).
3.     For P6 almost unlimited in practical terms.

If you are not an “Enterprise” who manages hundreds of jobs at the same time such as a Utility (Water/Power/DTOP…) probably you would be better off with Primavera P3 as it is flawless, P6 still has some bugs. If you are an “Enterprise” then go with P6, though slowly, they are getting there.

Sorry, I just heard Primavera is no longer providing Suretrak nor P3 to new customers.

If your projects are related or not related, have shared resources or not, have activity links or not, you can manage them with Spider Project.
In this software you can create any number of parallel Portfolio Breakdown Structures and group projects as necessary for any type of analysis and reports.
The number of projects, activities, resources, cost components, etc. is unlimited.
The number of portfolio/project planning participants is unlimited.
And this is the only package that can calculate portfolio schedule taking into account not only resource but also financial and supply constraints.

Hi All

I can’t resist jumping in here - with PowerProject in one file you can set up any group of tasks as a stand alone project.

Hence multiple projects in one file with common resources - calendars and cross project links if that is what you need.

Best regards

Mike Testro

Hi Mike,
I expected to meet you here.
Let’s wait for MicroPlanner.
Best Regards,
Vladimir

Hi,

The original question was "How to Manage Multiple Projects?"

And that has been outlined in the processes showing in the PMI standards.

With kind regards,

Samer

Yes,
and that is why I asked to clarify the question.
It is not possible to answer such question in the forum posting.
Best Regards,
Vladimir

Vladmir
It was good to meet you at PMI COS. Trying to keep pace with all these forums that one belongs too is now needing a full blown Multi Project Resource Scheduling System, to ensure that there is some time to work.

As you so accuratley forecast Micro Planner X-Pert does this with ease.

Max of 100 subprojects, up to 250 different resources (do you know of 250 different trades) Multi Project Resource Scheduling.

The sad thing with todays PMP’s is that they do not have a clue about Resource Planning and Scheduling and the importance of earned value.

But that is only my view.

I should think that you must be happy with the way Oracle is going to destroy Primavera.

See you next year in Calgary

Raf