2

Many times through my career I bumped into the situation when I had to run several projects simultaneously.

Is there any techniques available to keep track on them both?

My main concern that when run several simultaneously, you lose track either on one of them or on both, it could be even worse if there is a 3rd project kicking.

2
  • What do you use for tracking and managing a single project? Use the same tools and methods for multiple projects.
    – joeqwerty
    Commented Jul 22, 2019 at 11:42
  • For issue tracking I use GitHub Issues. For time-tracking Kanbanflow and WakaTime. The problem is that it's not always possible to use the same tool because projects are in Bitbucket, Stash, GitHub and it's not always up to me to decide which tools to use. Commented Jul 22, 2019 at 13:42

3 Answers 3

2

Try using a Gantt Chart.

You can keep it relatively high level but being able to visualise the timeline makes it easier to identify bottlenecks and tasks that can happen in parallel. It also forces you to be realistic about the effort of each task and your estimation ability will improve over time.

MSproject etc will automatically build one for you but excel works just fine for small-medium sized projects.

1

A tool like Trello can be used for very high level visualization of projects. Just use it to have a list of the projects you're responsible for and track where they are at a high level. I think it's a plus if this is not integrated with any other system because it will force you to consciously consider what you're doing about things.

Make sure you look at the board each day. You can set alarms/timers/reminders on an item too.

1

Hi Dmytro Chasovskyi,

Before you can successfully run multiple projects at once, you need to know your own strengths and weaknesses. I am a Web Developer myself but I'm stronger on the backend, have an eye for details and communicate well.

With this knowledge, when I have a web project, I break it down to UI/UX, Design, Frontend and Backend. Luckily, I have friends that are better and faster than I am in those areas so I outsource the work to them and pay them well too.

As you do this, you find that you can handle more projects than tackling the entire project alone each time. Form a strong team and delegate well.

If you don't have friends or colleagues like that, you can hire it out to experienced and skilled people.

As for tools, you can keep it simple by using Trello as HenryM suggested above. It's quite easy to learn and master if you don't already know how to use it.

Trello being a simple tool, if any of your team members don't know how to use it already, you can help them learn it quickly.

Tip: You can use also a color scheme / labels on Trello to track issues.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.