ABSTRACT
I recall on one consulting assignment, my program manager asked me how much I could take on. Being young and cocky, I told her that she could keep assigning me projects and I would let her know when I was overloaded. Soon, I was managing eight projects. I was doing the right things in general: holding team meetings, scheduling meetings with stakeholders, starting detailed analyses, and providing status reports. But it soon became difficult to keep some of the projects straight in my mind. I would mix up the names and acronyms as I moved from meeting to meeting. It started to appear to the project stakeholders that I was not on top of things even though I believed everything was happening as it needed to happen. Maybe they were even right. I perhaps was not managing the analysis and planning the way that I should have. The main aspects of the projects were on track but the perception with some stakeholders was I was not fully committed. And perception is often reality. My contract with that client was cut.
