Managing Multiple Projects Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Project Managers, Programme Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-PM-062

Before you join: Participants should understand the basic project lifecycle and have experience contributing to, coordinating or managing at least one project.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Managing several projects at once creates pressures that do not appear in single-project assignments: shared specialists become overbooked, priorities conflict, risks are reported inconsistently, and senior leaders receive fragmented status information. Project managers must make trade-offs between scope, schedule, cost, resource capacity and operational disruption while maintaining confidence among sponsors, customers and delivery teams.

This course teaches participants how to establish control across a group of concurrent projects using practical project, programme and portfolio management methods. Participants learn to classify and prioritise work, build integrated schedules, plan constrained resources, set reporting rhythms, manage cross-project dependencies and escalate decisions at the right level. The course also covers governance structures, benefits tracking, risk aggregation, change control and recovery planning for projects that are falling behind.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with realistic cases, planning workshops, group analysis and management simulations. Participants work with project data from settings such as technology change, capital works, public-service transformation and product launches. Each participant develops a reusable multi-project management pack containing a prioritisation model, integrated milestone plan, capacity view, dependency log, governance calendar and reporting templates. The course is delivered over five days, from 08:30 to 16:30, in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online, and includes a certificate of completion.

The course suits experienced project professionals who already manage defined projects and now need to coordinate several initiatives, workstream portfolios or shared delivery resources.

What you will be able to do

  • Prioritise concurrent projects using weighted scoring, strategic fit and delivery capacity
  • Build an integrated master schedule showing milestones, dependencies and critical interfaces
  • Allocate constrained resources using capacity planning and resource levelling techniques
  • Establish multi-project governance using decision rights, stage gates and escalation routes
  • Consolidate project risks, issues and changes into portfolio-level control reports
  • Produce executive dashboards using milestone, capacity, financial and risk indicators
  • Resolve cross-project conflicts through structured prioritisation and stakeholder negotiation
  • Create a 90-day multi-project control plan for workplace application

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Make defensible priority decisions when projects compete for people and funding
  • Present a single credible view of progress to sponsors and senior managers
  • Identify schedule conflicts and resource overloads before delivery dates are missed
  • Move from project-by-project administration to coordinated delivery leadership
  • Build evidence for progression into programme, PMO or portfolio roles

For your organisation

  • Fewer delivery delays caused by unmanaged cross-project dependencies
  • Clearer allocation of scarce specialists, budgets and operational capacity
  • Earlier escalation of portfolio risks, funding pressures and schedule conflicts
  • Consistent project status information for investment and governance decisions
  • Improved alignment between project work, strategic priorities and available capacity

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can distinguish project, programme and portfolio responsibilities and define their multi-project management remit.

  • Project, programme and portfolio distinctions under ISO 21502 governance principles
  • Defining management boundaries between individual projects and collective delivery control
  • Shared-resource conflicts, dependency failures and priority drift as recurring causes
  • Selecting portfolio, programme or project coordination structures for different mandates
  • Management accountabilities for sponsors, project managers, PMOs and functional leaders
  • Benefits, outputs and outcomes separated in multi-project decision making

Participants can rank proposed and active projects against transparent strategic and delivery criteria.

  • Weighted scoring models combining strategic fit, benefits, risk and feasibility
  • MoSCoW prioritisation for time-critical scope and competing delivery commitments
  • Scoring criteria calibrated with sponsors, finance leaders and operational owners
  • Assessing mandatory, regulatory, contractual and discretionary project classifications
  • Capacity constraints incorporated before approving new project starts
  • Priority decisions documented through a portfolio decision log

Participants can build an integrated plan that exposes inter-project milestones, handoffs and critical dependencies.

  • Integrated master schedules connecting milestones across concurrent project plans
  • Dependency mapping using finish-to-start, start-to-start and external relationships
  • Critical path analysis identifying date drivers across linked workstreams
  • Interface milestones defined with owners, acceptance criteria and due dates
  • Dependency logs recording assumptions, constraints, triggers and contingency actions
  • Sequencing projects to protect operational readiness and benefit realisation

Participants can assess resource demand, identify overloads and agree workable allocation decisions.

  • Resource breakdown structures grouping people, skills, equipment and facilities
  • Capacity planning compares available hours against project demand forecasts
  • Resource histograms reveal peaks, bottlenecks and underused specialist capacity
  • Resource levelling adjusts activities within permissible schedule float
  • Resource smoothing protects fixed deadlines while reducing workload variation
  • Allocation decisions recorded with named owners and review dates

Participants can establish governance arrangements that speed decisions and clarify accountability across projects.

  • RACI matrices clarify decision rights across sponsors, PMOs and delivery teams
  • Stage-gate reviews test readiness before funding, procurement or implementation commitments
  • Governance calendars align steering meetings, reporting cycles and key approvals
  • Escalation thresholds define when tolerances require senior management decisions
  • Terms of reference specify authority, membership, quorum and decision records
  • Decision logs preserve rationale, actions, owners and unresolved assumptions

Participants can aggregate project-level threats and changes into coordinated multi-project control actions.

  • Portfolio risk registers consolidate correlated threats across active projects
  • Risk aggregation identifies common causes, shared exposures and concentration points
  • Probability-impact matrices support consistent risk ranking and escalation
  • Issue management distinguishes current problems from uncertain future events
  • Integrated change control tests cross-project effects before approval
  • Contingency reserves assigned against quantified risks and decision triggers

Participants can create concise reports that show delivery health, exceptions and required decisions.

  • RAG criteria defined consistently for schedule, cost, scope, risk and benefits
  • Milestone trend analysis reveals recurring slippage before critical dates
  • Earned value management connects planned value, earned value and actual cost
  • Portfolio dashboards separate key indicators from supporting delivery detail
  • Exception reports state impact, options, recommendation and decision deadline
  • Reporting narratives explain causes, corrective actions and remaining exposure

Participants can manage competing stakeholder demands and secure agreements on cross-project trade-offs.

  • Stakeholder mapping assesses influence, interest, expectations and engagement approaches
  • Negotiation preparation identifies interests, constraints, alternatives and concession limits
  • Cross-project conflicts framed as scope, capacity, timing or authority decisions
  • Facilitated prioritisation meetings use evidence, criteria and documented agreements
  • Communication plans match project messages to stakeholder decision needs
  • Action trackers maintain commitments, owners, deadlines and closure evidence

Participants can monitor aggregate financial exposure and connect project delivery to expected benefits.

  • Portfolio budget baselines distinguish approved funding from forecast expenditure
  • Cost-to-complete forecasts highlight funding gaps and emerging overruns
  • Cash-flow profiles sequence project expenditure against available funding periods
  • Benefits maps link project outputs to measurable business outcomes
  • Benefits owners accept accountability for measures, targets and review dates
  • Stop, pause and continue decisions use cost, risk and benefit evidence

Participants can diagnose troubled project sets, select recovery actions and prepare a 90-day control plan.

  • Recovery diagnostics assess scope stability, schedule health, capacity and governance
  • Root-cause analysis uses five whys and cause-and-effect diagrams
  • Rebaselining criteria distinguish justified recovery plans from hidden failure
  • Scenario planning tests priority, sequencing and resource allocation alternatives
  • Ninety-day control plans define reporting routines, decisions and improvement actions
  • Personal application commitments identify stakeholders, deadlines and measurable outcomes

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Weighted project prioritisation matrix
  2. Integrated master schedule template
  3. Resource capacity and allocation model
  4. Cross-project dependency and risk register
  5. Multi-project governance calendar
  6. Executive portfolio dashboard template

Who should attend

  • Project Managers — coordinating several active projects and shared team members
  • Programme Managers — controlling linked workstreams, dependencies and governance decisions
  • PMO Managers — establishing common reporting, prioritisation and control practices
  • Operations Managers — balancing change projects against operational capacity
  • Transformation Managers — sequencing initiatives within major organisational change programmes
  • Senior Project Coordinators — preparing to assume multi-project management responsibilities

Skills and tools covered

Portfolio prioritisationIntegrated schedulingResource capacity planningDependency managementProgramme governanceExecutive reporting

Tools and standards

ISO 21502, RACI matrix, MoSCoW prioritisation, Earned Value Management

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by cases, group planning tasks, simulations and facilitated review. Participants analyse competing projects, construct integrated plans, test resource scenarios and prepare management reports for senior stakeholders. Cases reflect common pressures such as shared technical teams, regulatory deadlines, capital projects and business change. Individual application planning helps participants adapt the methods, templates and reporting routines to their current project set.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand the basic project lifecycle and have experience contributing to, coordinating or managing at least one project. They should be familiar with milestones, work breakdown structures, risks, issues, budgets and stakeholder reporting. Experience using a scheduling tool or spreadsheet is useful because examples include plans, resource data and status reports. Formal project management certification is not required. This is not an introductory project management course, and it does not require prior experience as a programme manager, portfolio manager or PMO specialist.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should understand basic project management concepts and have worked on at least one project. Prior programme or portfolio management experience is useful but not required.

Bring a laptop if possible, plus a non-confidential example of your current project set, reporting format or resource challenge. Course materials and reusable templates are provided.

It is designed for project managers, programme managers, PMO staff and operational managers coordinating several initiatives. It is particularly useful where projects share people, funding, suppliers or operational dependencies.

Standard project management courses focus on planning and controlling one project. This course focuses on prioritisation, shared resources, dependencies, governance and reporting across a set of concurrent projects.

Participants leave with templates for prioritisation, integrated planning, capacity analysis, governance and executive reporting. These can be adapted to current projects during the 90-day application planning work.

The five days contain ten modules of roughly three contact hours, supported by briefings, cases, group work and simulations. The remaining contact time is used for review, discussion, template development and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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