Functional Based Organizations,
what types of projects have been successfully executed in these environments?
Where do we typically see these projects approaches used?
Functional based organizations work best in small organizations with limited resources,
these organizations cannot afford to move
people out of their positions to work on a project.
These organizations work best with simple small projects,
that are very similar to the projects the organization executes on an ongoing basis.
These projects are typically low cost,
low risk and can be conducted in
the normal course of business and are not schedule critical.
What are some examples of projects that fit in this category?
Standard software updates come in the mind,
not the big complicated ones where you do the program,
but the ongoing updates and new releases to fix things or optimize performance.
Concept studies, these are
the studies before the project is authorizer or even fully defined.
These are typically done by staff members within
their function and prove whether or not the larger project is worth pursuing.
Till a project proves economic,
it's not usually worth creating a project team.
Similarly, project definition studies,
which take the concept studies and advance them to
the next step are done in a functional organization.
These studies start to put some of the project requirements and specifications
together to give the concept
more definition in anticipation of a project being authorized.
Again, until the project is authorized,
limited expenditures are the rule.
Weak matrix Organization, projects executed in
a weak matrix organization tend to be small projects of limited duration.
They tend to be relatively simple,
with few changes in execution approach or
scope relative to projects typically undertaken by the organization.
Like the functional based projects,
they tend to be low cost and low risk in nature with moderate schedule pressure.
Example projects might include maintenance projects.
An example might be a minor pump repair,
each department manages its portion of the work,
but it's all coordinated by one engineer.
For instance, first the electrical group might
come out and disconnect the pump from the power,
the piping group disconnects the pump from the piping,
and the mechanical group makes defense of the pump.
The process reverses itself then everything's put back together,
all under the direction of the unit engineer.
Another example is when the organization puts together a task force to recommend changes.
Each function nominates a representative,
puts together its recommendations,
one member of the group coordinates those responses and oversees the process.
The final report is usually a group effort also.
Concept selection studies, after
the concept for the project has been defined and the requirements set forth,
the organization may study various options and configurations to determine
which ones have the best potential to produce the best results.
These configurations studies and options screenings are usually done
in a weak matrix organization for small to medium sized projects.
Each function screens the options for its section of
the project and puts forth a concept or concepts.
A single engineer coordinates the effort and pulls together the final review.
Finally, a technology strategy development project may also follow a similar approach to
the concept selection study or
the task force recommendations and use a weak matrix structure.
The Balanced Matrix Organization, where is it used?
These projects tend to be larger in scope and more complex than
those that successfully use the functional or weak matrix organizations.
They are small to moderately sized and slightly more complex,
requiring more coordination to be successful,
typically the organization has some experience with
these projects and the cost and schedule pressures is not intense.
Examples include relocation operations,
the organization is scheduled to move their operations to a new location,
therefore it requires some degree of coordination to make
sure it comes off in a coordinated fashion,
but each function needs to be coordinated and control the move of its people.
Reorganization projects across multiple functions.
Again, the project needs a central coordinating function
to make sure the organizations are compatible and synchronize,
yet much of the work needs to be done within the functions.
The strong matrix organization,
as the projects grow in size and become more complex,
the strong matrix organization becomes a better choice.
Because the projects still share resources,
a strong matrix organization may struggle with
schedule and typically are not good at a lot of change.
They're good however when these types of projects require
strong functional input and we have a moderate amount of risk exposure.
Some good examples of
strong matrix organization projects include feasibility studies for large projects,
where we want to have all the technical input from the functions,
with the coordination control of a project based organization.
These projects tend to be too large for
a part time project manager to keep track of and control,
and they need more attention because their size and complexity.
The engineering design portion of a construction project can be
effectively done using a strong matrix approach,
particularly if the construction is being handled by another organization.
The project manager identifies staff in
each one of the engineering disciplines to execute
the design and uses the strong matrix approach to make the engineering more efficient.
The approach is particularly good if technology is
important and experts required that are not available full time.
However, it may not be as good on projects where the schedule is
short and a significant amount of changes are expected.
New software development can be done in the same manner using similar techniques.
The final example is a plant turnaround.
This is a short duration event in which the plant
is modified or maintained on a crash basis.
Typically there is a central group who plans and manages the entire event,
then each department or function loans their
personnel and oversees their portion of the work.
The short duration makes it less efficient to form a task force to complete these tasks,
but the short schedule and higher risk require full time management attention.