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CHAPTER 1.2

ORGANIZING FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT

We can devote an entire book, let alone just a chapter, to discuss how to ef-
fectively organize for managing projects. For much of the past century, or-
ganizational design concepts were fairly stagnant. We essentially derived all
organizations from the basic Functional Organization design. The key arguments
revolved around whether a highly centralized Functional Organization or a de-
centralized Functional Organization was better. Then, starting in the 1950s, revo-
lutionary organizational design concepts emerged, about every two decades.

In the 1950s, it was the Project Organization that received a lot of attention, as
a better way to address the needs of managing large projects. In the 1970s, much
was written about the next revolution (or revelation): the Matrix Organization.
The movement away from rigid structures, blossoming in the 1980s, gave way to
the proliferation of Teams in the 1990s.

Much has been written about these three traditional organizational types:
Functional, Project, and Matrix. In the past couple of decades, even more has
been written about emerging, less-structured ways of leading project-oriented
work. We hear of the adhocracy and teamocracy, as movements away from the
more conventional bureaucratic approach toward project management.

There is considerable and justifiable support for organizational methods that
facilitate the sharing of resources and the softening of traditional boundaries. Al-
though not without some disadvantages, you will find that the Matrix and Team

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