Tracking multiple projects - issues, solutions, tips

Many of project managers face challenges of multiple project tracking and often experience problems with this activity. Issues can appear on different stages and because of different reasons. Most common reason of those problems is miscellaneous nature and organization of projects that should be managed. Different projects may have different inputs and outputs, different reporting information, different specifics and issues, so it seems to be very intricate activity for project manager who can not be absolutely competent in everything that he/she is intended to control. To track many activities and projects successfully and avoid many issues project manager should follow several essential guidelines:

• You should not go too much into details, especially if projects are miscellaneous. To track multiple projects effectively you need to use adopted, standardized and laconic reporting information that tells you what exactly is completed, what milestones were passed, how much time and money was spent, what is the next step etc.
• To perform track of multiple projects properly you should delegate competence and duties to reliable sub-managers who can assist you and solve specific issues if they appear - the process can be greatly facilitated if you have competent on-site controllers who can collect, adopt and deliver appropriate reporting information to you.
• Ensure basis for successful project monitoring on the stage of planning. Do not plan too much of details. Make sure that plan is described in understandable terms. To monitor several or more projects at once, plan projects in task-oriented and stage-oriented way.
• The sense of multiple project tracking is actually to check if projects are moving according to plan, so make sure that you will receive reports described in the same terms that were used in your plan.
• Install special software. It can help you to observe all previous requirements and will greatly increase your effectiveness.

Such software is an answer for the question "How to track multiple projects?" - The best way is to plan and control them with a help of real-time groupware. Some of advantages of the real-timesoftware:

• Possibility to use standardized tools
• Possibility to plan an projects within one database
• Possibility to plan and track projects by time, costs and quantity quickly and easily

VIP Task Manager is a time and task planning groupware which allow breaking-down projects into tasks, assigning tasks to executors, placing tasks into task groups, and tracking course of task performance in real-time regime. This software is effective for tracking multiple projects.

VIP Task Manager is easy-to-use multiple projects tracker which allows multiple users to access one database via LAN and Internet. It features:

•  Assigning tasks to team members, tracking task performance
•  Setting timelines and priorities for tasks
•  Time, quantity, KPI, productivity and cost control
•  Management of small projects, daily tasks and business processes
•  Customizable task attributes and workflows
•  Instant e-mail and in-system notifications
•  Task Tree, Task List and Scheduler (Calendar) mode
•  Multiple projects, departments, sub-teams management
•  Access rights management
•  Free server part and no recurring fees

Read also a new article about process management - project management client-server software for Windows