5 Simple Tips For Developers To Handle Multiple Projects Simultaneously

If you are a developer, you might find yourself juggling multiple projects simultaneously. Unfortunately, it may turn out to be an unnecessary hassle without establishing a proper workflow for your projects.

Typically, developers establish cross-group dependencies before working between teams, and the intricacies might make it tough to keep track of and even decide which task to focus on next.

A recent study states that 1-in-6 projects overshoot their schedule by 70 percent, and almost 25 percent of projects fail due to inaccurate task time estimates. These are some notable stats that suggest the importance of project management.

Hence, setting up an appropriate process to prioritize, sequence, and structure your workload is necessary. It is increasingly important for developers to manage concurrent work streams and handle multiple tasks simultaneously.

These are some tactics that can help you stay on track whether you're trying to plan and manage work across numerous projects and ensure that your team has a manageable workload.

How to Manage Multiple Projects At Once?

Individuals who can effectively manage multiple projects inside an organization are typically well-organized and strong delegators. They are capable of balancing the large picture with the small details.

Managing multiple projects generally include the following-:

• An Overwhelming Number of Initiatives
• Cross-Departmental Collaboration
• Dwindling Availability of Resource
• Attention Dispersed Amongst Various Clients

Multitasking may seem like an optimal solution, but it isn't, and you can't possibly devote 100% of your attention to two different things simultaneously. Therefore, it is recommended to focus entirely on one thing and give it your undivided attention.

Here are some sure-shot tips to manage your projects easily regardless of their size and multiplicity.

Prioritizing and Organizing Your Work

Firstly, you need to figure out tasks that require your utmost attention and align with your company goals. Rank your projects based upon the impact they may have on your organization.

You can borrow from the sales industry and try implementing lead scoring for tasks related to the projects you're working on. While this might not be exactly the same the approach can give you enough clarity on which tasks need to be taken care of first.

While it may seem more appealing to start with the basic projects, resist. Instead, it would be best if you lay your attention to the tasks that rank top on your priority list.

The 4-Square task prioritization is a helpful method to differentiate tasks into four categories- urgent, not urgent, important, and not important.

You can try this method to determine what you should focus on and what is not worth your time.

Communications and Collaboration Among Team Members

Effective communication boosts team morale and ensures that everyone is on the same page regarding priorities and objectives. A survey reveals that around 32 percent of professionals believe in-effective communication is the biggest issue in successful technology implementation.

Miscommunication affects project teams adversely since it interferes with their ability to operate together. It increases the chances of potential conflicts among team members. Thus, causing unnecessary project delays.

Visibility is one of the most critical factors in communication amongst team members. Visibility breeds clarity and makes it easier for the manager and team lead to get necessary insights out of the projects ensuring seamless communication and collaboration.

Delegating Your Tasks

We're typically reasonably competent at what we do; it's simple to fall into this control trap. Perhaps we lack faith in a team member's ability to complete this work as well as we can. Does this ring a bell? If we avoid these pitfalls, our team improves due to delegating, and we effectively grow upward.

Delegating is an underdeveloped ability that is important for timely and successful delivery of your projects. Team Leads miss out on a lot of benefits by failing to delegate.

Delegating responsibility amongst your team members may help focus on tasks that require greater concentration. You can delegate non-essential and recurring tasks among your team members.

Meanwhile, it shall also help build relationships, promote decision-making, and contribute to the company's overall growth.

Delegation doesn't necessarily mean relinquishing control over a project and over-relying on your team members. Instead, it focuses upon empowering team members in decision-making and making them responsible for a small part of the project.

Develop Project Plan and Schedules

When you're in charge of multiple projects, there are a lot of unknown variables that might shift your entire project trajectory.

Therefore, it is ever so important to remain organized and proactive throughout the project life cycle, as it will help you keep a limited scope and a management plan in place if things go south.

Scheduling your team's activities with the full scope of your program will help you manage your tasks more effectively. Your team would coordinate between the project start date and completion date while working on multiple projects.

Scheduling tasks will help establish better coordination and make it easier for the team members to collaborate.

Using The Right Tools

Having the right tools at your disposal will help you stay prepared and organized. They let you track your task progress, manage projects easily in one place, and come up with an efficient project management plan.

The "right tool" may vary entirely depending upon the nature of your project, teams, and resources.

If you find yourself switching between multiple projects, the need for a project management tool goes without saying. A project management tool may help you plan, organize, prioritize tasks to ensure timely completion of your projects. It allows you to get an in-depth overview of progress of different projects at the same time.

Moreover, it enables seamless collaboration between project teams by developing a channelized structure for communication.

Bottomline

Managing multiple projects requires a great deal of effort and flexibility. Using these tactics and tools, you'll be well equipped to keep track of deadlines, balance your priorities, and provide desired results.

Make sure to develop the right processes to ensure timely and successful delivery of your projects. Hopefully, these little nuggets of information will help you manage multiple projects efficiently.