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Projectized Organizations
Projectized organizations are nearly the opposite of functional organizations. The focus of this type of organization is the project itself. The idea behind a projectized organization is to develop loyalty to the project, not to a functional manager.
Organizational resources am dedicated to projects and project work in purely projectized organizations. Project managers almost always have ultimate authority over the project in this structure and report directly to the CEO. In a purely projectized organization, supporting functions like human resources and accounting might report directly to the project manager as well. Project managers are responsible for making decisions regarding the project and acquiring and assigning resources. They have the authority to choose and assign resources from other areas in the organization or to hire them from outside if needed. For example, if there isn't enough money in the budget to hire additional resources the project manager will have to come up with alternatives to solve this problem. This is known as a constraint. Project managers in all organizational structures are limited by the triple constraints commonly known as: project scope, schedule, and cost (or budget). Quality is sometimes considered a constraint and it's generally affected by scope, schedule, and/or cost.
Teams are formed and often collocated, which means that team members physically work at the same location. Project team members report to the project manager, not to a functions or departmental manager. One obvious drawback to a projectized organization is that project team members may find themselves out of work at the end of the project. An example of this might he a consultant who works on a project until completion and then is put on the bench or let go at the end of the project. Some inefficiency exists in this kind of organization when it comes to resource utilization. If you have a situation where you need a highly specialized skill at cartain times throughout the project, the resource you're using to perform this function might be idle during other times in the project.
In summary, projectized organizations are identified in several ways:
Project managers have ultimate authority over the project.
The focus of the organization is the project.
The organization's resources are focused on projects and project work.
Team members are collocated.
Loyalties are formed to the project, not to a functional manager.
Project teams are dissolved at the conclusion of the project. |