Project Manager and Project Organization Structures

In projects, project manager involve stakeholders to achieve project goals:

–Planning,
–Scheduling,
–Coordinating,
–Working

Project managers have the responsibility to satisfy the needs: task needs, team needs, and individual needs.

In addition to any area-specific skills and general management proficiencies required for the project, effective project management requires that the project manager possess the following competencies:
– Knowledge: refers to what the project manager knows about project management.
– Performance: refers to what the project manager is able to do or accomplish while applying his or her
project management knowledge.
– Personal: refers to how the project manager behaves when performing the project or related activity. Personal effectiveness encompasses attitudes, core personality characteristics, and leadership, which provides the ability to guide the project team while achieving project objectives and balancing the project constraints.

Project manager might act on one of four types of project organizations as below

And the differences among types of project organization include role alignment, authority, time devoted to the Project, interactions structures… Those are from the difference on the way project allocate human resources into

Functional Organizations have clear reporting hierarchy – each person has a reporting manager, Each Department specializes in a specific function or skill knowledge. Projects are local to departments

In Projectized Organizations: all activities including functions carried out as projects, departments provide support to the projects, and team members are usually collocated.

Matrix Organizations reflect a blend of functional and projectized characteristics
– Weak matrix organizations maintain many of the characteristics of a functional organization, and the role of the project manager is more of a coordinator or expediter. He works as staff assistant and communications coordinator. The expediter cannot personally make or enforce decisions. Project coordinators have power to make some decisions, have some authority, and report to a higher-level manager.

Strong matrix organizations have many of the characteristics of the projectized organization, and have full-time project managers with considerable authority and full-time project administrative staff
Balanced matrix organization recognizes the need for a project manager, it does not provide the project manager with the full authority over the project and project funding