If you have gone through the series of Project Management articles posted on OSMI.EDU, you may have the basic knowledge on projects, project management and so on. This section would take you through how an organization adopt the concept of projects to organizational structure.
In general a firm would be organized by functional divisions, product line, geographic location, production process, type of customers, subsidiary organizations and etc. Over the past decade or so, a new structure has been rapidly growing across enterprises, namely, "Project Organization" which applies project management practices and tools across an enterprise. There are various reasons for the development and growth of Enterprise Project Management such as,
Speed and market responsiveness have become absolute requirements for successful competition.
The development of new products, processes, or services regularly requires inputs from diverse areas of specialized knowledge.
The rapid expansion of technological possibilities in almost every area of enterprise tends to destabilize the structure of organizations.
A large majority of senior managers we know rarely feel much confidence in their understanding of and control over a great many of the activities going on in their organizations.
It is true that the Project Manager has a minimum say over the interface between the organization and the project as this is a strategic decision taken by the senior management of the organization but project manager's work would be strongly affected by the project structure. Hence, it is very important for a Project Manager to understand its workings.
Based on how an organization treat or rather absorb projects to its organizational structure, there are three main categorizations, namely,
Functional Structure
Pure Project Structure
Matrix Structure
The Functional Structure
As shown above, project activities are treated as a part of one of the functional divisions of the firm by assigning to the functional unit that has the most interest in ensuring its success or can be most helpful in implementing it.
The Pure Structure
This is the total opposite of above where project will be treated as a separate, self-contained unit with its own technical staff, its own administration and so on but tied to the parent firm by the tenuous strands of periodic progress reports and oversight.
The Matrix Structure
Some people call this as "Hybrid Structure" or "Mix Structure". The name itself confirms the attributes of a Matrix structure. In simple norms this is a combination of Functional and Pure structures. The major attempt here would be to couple advantages and avoid some disadvantages in above two.
The “project” or “strong” matrix most resembles the pure project organization. The “functional” or “weak” matrix most resembles the functional form of organization. Finally, the “balanced” matrix lies in between the other two.
In other words,
If the matrix structure has more pure project characteristics, it is called a Strong Matrix where project manager would have slighlty more control over the project activities.
If the matrix structure has more functional project characteristics, it is called a Weak Matrix where project manager would have slighlty less control over the project activities.
Purindu B Jayatilake
MSc Eng (Reading), MBA, BSc (Hons) Eng, ACMA (UK), CGMA
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