1. Software project management
Organizational Structures

2. Software Projects Management
Course Objectives
Understand organizational structures
Describe the organization structure’s influence on management
Understand the organizational culture aspects
Slides adapted from K. Schwalbe
Software Projects Management

3. Understanding Organizations
Structural frame: Focuses on roles and responsibilities, coordination and control. Organization charts help define this frame.
Ex. Functional, Projectized, Matrix
Human resources frame: Focuses on providing harmony between needs of the organization and needs of people.
Ex. how people are recruited, used and rewarded; how to find/allocate the appropriate people for projects, etc.
Political frame: Assumes organizations are coalitions composed of varied individuals and interest groups. Conflict and power are key issues.
Ex. Opposants, shifting of power towards project managers, obtaining scarce resources
Symbolic frame: Focuses on symbols and meanings related to events. Culture is important.
Ex. How the people dress, CEO involvement in day to day operations, how many hours to work, international team mixture of cultures
Software Projects Management

4. Organizational Structures
Functional
Statically structured based on specialization: Engineering, Marketing, Design, IT, etc
P&L from production
Project
Dynamically structured based on project assignments: Project A, Project B
Income from projects
PM has P&L responsibility
Matrix
Functional and Project based
Strong, Weak, Balanced
Software Projects Management

5. Functional Organization
Software Projects Management

6. Functional organizations
Clear definition of authority inside functional areas
Eliminates duplication
Encourages specialization
Clear career paths
Can lack customer orientation
Create longer decisions cycles
Conflicts across functional areas
Project leaders have little power (political frame is important)
Ex. University, Govern
Software Projects Management

7. Software Projects Management
Project Organization
Software Projects Management

8. Project organizations
Unity of command
Efficient project management (quality, time, costs, scope)
Effective inter-project communication
Duplication of facilities
No well defined career path
Ex. Consulting companies, architectural companies, small to medium size IT companies
Software Projects Management

9. Software Projects Management
Matrix Forms
Weak, Strong, Balanced
Degree of relative power
Weak: functional-centric
Strong: project-centric
Software Projects Management

10. Software Projects Management
Weak matrix
Software Projects Management

11. Software Projects Management
Balanced matrix
Software Projects Management

12. Software Projects Management
Strong matrix
Software Projects Management

13. Software Projects Management
Composite
Software Projects Management

14. Software Projects Management
Matrix organizations
Project integration across functional lines
Efficient use of resources
Retains functional teams
Two bosses for personnel
Complexity
Resource & priority conflicts
Software Projects Management

15. Functional, Project, and Matrix Organizational Structures
Software Projects Management

16. Structure Influence on Projects
Software Projects Management

17. Project Life Cycle and Organization Structure
Life cycle and agility
Life cycle and PM authority
Plan conflicts between functional departments related to resource allocation
Project size impact on organization: projectized moving to functional
Software Projects Management

18. Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is a set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that characterize the functioning of an organization
Many experts believe the underlying causes of many companies’ problems are not the structure or staff, but the culture
Software Projects Management

19. Ten Characteristics of Organizational Culture
Member identity (loyalty)*
Group emphasis(teamwork)*
People focus (individual needs)
Unit integration(coordination)*
Control (overseeing)
Risk tolerance(aggressivity, innovation)*
Reward criteria(correctness)*
Conflict tolerance(communication)*
Means-ends orientation(focus)
Open-systems focus(adaptability)*
*Project work is most successful in an organizational culture where these items are strong/high and other items are balanced
Software Projects Management

20. Stakeholders Management
Internal stakeholders and external stakeholders
Project managers must take time to identify, understand, and manage relationships with all project stakeholders
Using the four frames of organizations can help meet stakeholder needs and expectations: also evaluate external stakeholders’ organizations)
Senior executives/top management are very important stakeholders
Software Projects Management

21. Top Management Commitment
Availability of resources: money, people, visibility
Approval for additional, unexpected needs: bonuses, people, hardware, software, etc.
Help with political issues while needing resources from other functional areas
Help with daily management operations
Encourage the use of IT technologies
Support the implementation of processes and standards
Software Projects Management