PMTip - Organizational Design & PM Interactions Part 2 of 2 -
07:08
Posted by Jason Tratch
Advantages vs Disadvantages of different organizational design structures:
Note: This is Part 2 and is a continuation of Part 1 (previous blog post), which defined and illustrated Functional vs Projectized organization designs.
Functional organization design:
Note: This is Part 2 and is a continuation of Part 1 (previous blog post), which defined and illustrated Functional vs Projectized organization designs.
Functional organization design:
- clear authority by the functional managers
- fosters technical competence and communication
- fosters personal growth and teamwork within the functional group (strong professional development policies also usually exist)
- easier to align corporate functional goals with departmental accountability
- inflexible
- poor horizontal coordination (if resources in different departments)
- not customer focused
- resources have different agendas and priorities (in accordance to their functional manager not the PM)
- no clear ownership, accountability or authority for projects
Advantages:
- task oriented, very productive
- elimination of power struggles between people and projects
- stronger project team cooperation and communication
- aligns the team number to the current amount of work available
- project oriented
- buffered from external interruptions, side tracking and conflicts
Disadvantages:
- mobilization and demobilization of staff difficult
- does not foster long term team growth or professional development
- difficult to share resources between projects
- operational work is not allocated effectively
Matrix organization design:
Advantages
- Combines aspects of both Functional and Projectized to meet a middle ground that works within the culture of the organization
- Resources will have a focus on multiple perspectives
- Decisions can be faster
- Information and reporting flows across organization
- Prioritizations are more aligned with the company (not focused on a department)
- Balance of power between PMs and Functional Managers
- Decision support can be more supported and buy-in can be greater
- More effective use of specialized resources
- Increased conflict with senior management (lack of single power of authority)
- Extended negotiations and possible increases in delays
- Lack of Social culture within focused team environments
A supporting article that compares the different types (pros vs cons) can be seen at:
This entry was posted on October 4, 2009 at 12:14 pm, and is filed under
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