Masaryk University

Faculty of Informatics

Master Thesis

Project Management in Matrix

Organization

Student: Agron Zylali, 395777

Brno 2014

1

Statement

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently using

only the sources listed in the bibliography. All resources, sources, and literature, which I used in preparing or I drew on

them,

I quote in the thesis properly with stating the full reference to

the source.

Agron Zylali

Supervisor: RNDr. Stanislav Michelfeit

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Contents Abstract .......................................................................... 3 1. Introduction ............................................................ 5

2. Background Literature and Theory.......................... 6 3. Project Management ............................................... 7

3.1. Project Life Cycle ................................................ 9 3.1.1. Project Initiation ............................................. 10

3.1.2. Project Planning .............................................. 14 3.1.3. Project Execution ............................................ 19

3.1.4. Project Closure ............................................... 20 3.2. Project Decomposition ....................................... 23

3.2.1. Product Breakdown Structure.......................... 23 3.2.2. Organization Breakdown Structure ................. 24

3.2.3. Work Breakdown Structure ............................. 24 3.3. Project Organization .......................................... 25

3.3.1. Functional Organization .................................. 26 3.3.2. Projectized Organization ................................. 27

4. Matrix Organization ................................................ 29 4.1. Literature Review

.............................................. 29

4.2. Interview Procedure ........................................... 32 4.2.1. Questions related to Matrix Structure

Organization ............................................................. 34 4.2.2. Questions regarding the projects in Matrix

Structure Organization .............................................. 46 5. Conclusion ........................................................... 57

6. Bibliography ......................................................... 59

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Abstract

This diploma thesis contains a topic regarding project

management, mainly concentrated about projects in matrix organization structure, which is a blend of functional and

projectized organization. Initially I will elucidate the

significance in detail for each various type, with the enlightenment of advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore I

will focus on responsibilities of each organization line within

the matrix organization mainly for managing a project,

including as well the influence of work breakdown structure (WBS). Entirely I will illustrate the interaction between these

lines throughout project lifecycle in project management

processes. Subsequently I will advice some kind of recommendation concerning suggestions in terms of using

each organization type for some different variety of projects.

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Keywords

Project, Project Management, Matrix Organization, Functional

Organization, Projectized Organization, Work Breakdown Structure, Project Lifecycle

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1. Introduction (1) (2)

The area of Project Management fortunately does not

simply contain a specific definition and explanation, because it has been enlightenment in various different approaches and

manners, but the most common one used are the ones given by

PMI (Project Management Institute), which defines the Project Management as the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet or exceed

stakeholder objectives and expectations from a particular

project (2)

and the other definition formulated by ISO 10006 which describes it as follows: Project Management is the planning, organizing, monitoring and controlling all aspects and activities of the project in a continuous process to achieve

its planned objectives (2)

Both of definitions specified above are accurate since they provide a clear explanation seen from different

perspectives of what really this discipline is and what

managers and leaders in general suppose to do in order to drive the project till the successful completion through predefined

sets of activities. This discipline has been and continues to be applied in many different industries, rather than in specific one and not all of them manage it in the same way. Therefore,

organizations based on their strategy they have, structure,

service they provide and the method they perform, differ from each other the way they manage the projects, because of

applying completely compatible project life cycles for their

particular needs. The approach chosen by the organization on how the projects will be managed has

extremely high impact, and it is very important for the

organization since it is the key to the success.

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2. Background Literature and Theory (3) (4) (5)

Despite the fact of being a modern discipline, its origin

starts from the latter half of the nineteenth century, evolved mostly from the approach of how people used to organize and

manage their work, especially when the business in the world

started to develop into complex. In that time, people believed that the only method of improving the productivity was

working harder and longer, in contrary according to Frederick

Taylor analysis it was brought into the market the concept of

providing more efficient work. Another significant person of the management principle is Henry Gant, who created the tool

called Gant chart, which enables people to better organize and

control their work. These two scientists are considered to be the father of scientific management.

The management process mainly achieved its peak in

the middle of the twentieth century where the two project scheduling models were introduced to managers for facilitating

a control over complex projects. These two models are: CPM

(Critical Path Method) is an algorithm for setting up activities

for a particular project and PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) which beside being a method and

technique for better analyzing the tasks and activities, its main

functionality is to evaluate the minimum period of time required to successfully complete the project.

Subsequently, the area continued to improve and it

reached the attention mostly when two non-profit organizations were created; IPMA (International Project

Management Association) in 1967 and PMI (Project

Management Institute) in 1969. They had a high impact on

increasing the significance of various industries for managing projects. Both of them were mostly concentrated on increasing

the knowledge, developing and continuously improving the

Project Management area by providing different kind of services for managers and leaders; for instance professional

education, books (Project Management Body of Knowledge),

working guidelines prepared by experienced project managers,

trainings and seminars held by experts, instructions given by qualified and skilled leaders, networking etc.

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3. Project Management (6) (7) (8)

Project Management is very comprehensive and

attractive area, seen as a science or modern discipline. Furthermore, it can be considered as well as a matter of art to

manage a project from the beginning, through the lifecycle till

the successful closure. The discipline had a huge impact by its various

significant benefits within organizations, influencing the

business world. All this occurred by the result of concentrating

through different outcomes such as: improving the customer satisfaction by increasing efficiency in delivering services.

This can be easily identified by the objectives of this area, for

instance:

- recognizing additional risks, analyzing and making correct decisions by responding with a proper solution. This can be named as Risk

Assessment;

- ensuring the completion of the project within budget and time, by using specified resources;

- having control of the project for facilitating the tracking of it;

- increasing the quality; - improving the communication within the

organizations;

- the achievement of projects goals; - the most important objective is to simply ensure

that customers specific needs and requirements are

met, etc

Project Management principally supports three related

fundamental levels, and they are: Projects, Subprojects and

Programs:

Project: is basically created once, it is specific and temporary, undertaken by a member, team or organization.

It is a unique process established to achieve or deliver an

output, consisting of controlled and well coordinated set of

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activities in line with cost, time and specific resources. In

essence, it refers to a particular outcome in a kind of product or a specific service created and developed by a team which is

run by a leader. Projects are not the same as operations; they

differ from each other from the viewpoint of the functionality

since projects are unique and temporary consisting of a beginning and the end, while operations are ongoing and

repetitive with no start and end,

Subproject: same as the projects, it is a temporary process, undertaken with the aim of producing an

outcome, product or a service. It is basically a set of activities

and work divided from a single project in case of it is a big or more complex. It is divided among more manageable parts

which are called Subproject, in order to be able to better

control, manage and facilitate the completion of it by assigning

the right employees in the area which they are specialized and experienced. Even though they are split from projects,

subprojects are mostly considered and treated like a project,

Program: While the Project intends as an outcome to achieve a specific service or a kind of product,

Program is a process undertaken to achieve a mission or a

strategy. It contains several projects and ongoing sets of activities. It actually refers to multiple interrelated projects, in

order to be able to improve as well as facilitate the general

control and management within the organizations. This process

of managing is known as Program Management.

It is worth pointing out that in general Projects and

Programs are not the same; they differ from each other, therefore the main and most significant differences between

them are as follows:

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Project:

is temporary

has a start and an end

supports service as an outcome

has a specified scope

focuses more on the outcome

Program:

is ongoing activity

has no beginning and no end

supports strategy as an outcome

can have a wide scope

focuses more on the benefit

The scheme how the Project, Subproject and Program are

in general structured within an organization or company is as

follows:

Picture 1: Project Management

Tool used: http://www.wbstool.com/WBSEditor.php

3.1. Project Life Cycle (9) (10) (7) (11)

In order to be able to manage projects in most

effective and efficient way for delivering an outcome or service, managers are going through an approach called

Project Life Cycle. Each organization or company, or even

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each manager can have its own way of managing or personal

approach which may be differentiated from one other. The reason of not having a unique one is because it depends on the

type of the project or the business it is needed. However, over

time a standardized Project Life Cycle has been created, which

is considered as a base for any decided approach by the manager or the leader. By this standardized approach, a

manager can adjust it to his type of project or business.

The mentioned standardized approach consists four significant interrelated phases which are: Project Initiation,

Project Planning, Project Execution and Project Closure.

Basically, a meaning behind this phase is: Start-Plan-Do-Close! However, there is another additional phase which is

called Controlling. Actually, it depends on the manager or

leader, whether he/she is going to consider this activity as a

phase itself and put it as a separate one, or whether he/she will apply its functionality throughout the whole approach of the

project.

Clearly, each phase has different functionality, characteristics and is helping a leader to better plan the way he

will manage the project, although from all of them it is

expected to deliver a result which facilitates him or her to make a decision to further proceed or turn back. Except the

fact of having a standardized way of managing a project, it is

still not enough for delivering what is expected or being

successful, and indeed a careful, detailed and analyzed planning is required.

3.1.1. Project Initiation (9) (10) (7) (11)

The first phase of Project Life Cycle is called Project Initiation. This stage is considered as very significant and critical for its importance since a leader establishes the projects

objectives and defines deliverables. In case that this phase is

not analyzed and defined properly by the leader, it increases the risk of not succeeding, meaning of project failure or it may

also occur to late delivery. The mentioned phase can be very

broad and can contain numerous steps, however in the

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following part the thesis concentrates on covering the most

essential phases and steps in general. It is worth to point out that this phase is also

subdivided into further steps:

- Feasibility Study: This stage is the first stage that the leader performs after receiving the project proposal or after the

project proposal has been sent. It means undertaking a detailed

study of the offer/project/business case, analyzing the requirements and resources as well; identifying any kind of

problem; estimating how big and how complex the project or

offer is; foreseen a risk or issue that may occur, which can have an impact during the project life cycle and prioritizing

them based on their importance; additional delays; building a

plan in order to avoid the mentioned risks and issues;

identifying and classifying a list of solution in case a risk or issue occurs; identifying the business environment and

collecting the business information, etc. For all these studies

and analysis, a document usually is prepared containing the outcome of analyses, with tables and matrixes. Afterward the

document is presented and communicated within the Portfolio

and Program level of the organization or company in order to evaluate it. A brief example of one of these tables that can be

found in the document of the feasibility study, may be written

as the instance given below for risks:

Risk

Description

Probability Impact Action

Instance 1 L/M/H L/M/H Action 1

Instance 2 L/M/H L/M/H Action 2

Table 1: Feasibility study (Risk Analyses)

Risk Description: a brief description of a risk that may occur during the project lifecycle;

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Probability: a probability that a risk may occur in

future, usually is evaluated as follows: Low, Medium and High;

Impact: a level of the impact that may have if the risk

occurs, this also may be estimated by: Low, Medium and

High; Action: A description of the solution, in case a

particular risk occurs.

- Projects Objective: In some organization this phase is

called in different way, for instance: a mission or a vision. The

manager in this stage first defines the objectives of the project. Clearly each project has a common goal: success, meeting

and/or even exceeding the expectations within the time and

within budget. However, apart from this, projects may also

have other objectives to. Therefore, to better and easily identify the objectives, there are usually some questions

answered by the leader such as: Why this Project? What is this

Project? Is it feasible? What will be the outcome? What are the circumstances? What are the expectations?

- Deliverables and Requirements: Apart of the above mentioned quantitative analyses the manager studies the

deliverables and requirements to. They are stated in contracts,

but sometimes it may not be sufficient to fully define all

requirements. There is also another fact to be considered, whether the deliverable is a product/service or result because

for each category there should be different analyses performed.

However, for each type it is significant to be defined as much as it is possible. Of course, there are some questions where the

answers given can provide us a clear picture for deliverables

for instance: What is required? Is it new or existed? Where is

the location? How many should be delivered? etc. As for Requirements based on the type of the project there can ban

various questions, and from the outcome the manager defines

the requirements by following step: Gathering, Categorizing, Validating and creating Requirements Baseline. When having

all information in place, afterwards manager ensures that his or

her team stakeholder, sponsors and everyone involved in the

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team fully understand the projects objective. In order to avoid

any kind of misunderstanding in future, usually managers writes it down and stores it as evidence.

- Project Charter: Finally, after having all studies and analysis done and documented, also presented and discussed with the people involved in project, manager prepares the

Project Charter. Beside the manager, also a sponsor can

prepare this document. A sponsor is an individual or may be an organization that has an authority to ensure or delegate a

formalization of agreement with the delivery. This document is

an official document where the projects scope, objectives, rules, time, budget, requirements, framework and other

information are clearly defined. This document usually is up to

ten pages, based on the size of the project; sometime a verbal

agreement is done for small projects but still it is recommended to have it in paper for future evidence. Project

Charter can be structured in a different manner since it may

vary on the type of the project and organization, but usually it contains the following sections: Project Purpose, Objective and

Requirements, Description of the Project, Schedule, Budget,

Resources; Project Manager, Team members and Resources.

Usually after all have been analyzed, in order to make

it fully certain, sale manager consults with the quality team

and engagement team, to review again if the project is feasible, doable, and possible before they submit the contract with the

client.

- Assigning the Project: In this phase a leader takes the first step after performing a feasibility study, with reviewing,

analyzing and also taking the motive under consideration of

accepting the project. After having the result, a leader approves its launch and he/she confirms the right person

responsible as Project Manager in order to drive it from the

beginning till successful completion. Usually a decision is made by considering from one side how complex and big the

project is and from the other side employees knowledge, experience, capability and availability. Afterward the Kick Off

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is sent, and the Project Manager can continue with the further

responsibilities. However, there might be some situations when the Project Manager is part of the Project Initiation

Phase from the very beginning. This has a positive impact and

is effective since he/she is aware of the project, and when the

Kick Off is sent there is no need of further analysis of the contract, he/she can immediately start with the next phase of

the lifecycle.

It is very apparent that the manager or leader should

initiate very carefully and pay attention the mentioned phase

since it may increase a risk to project failure, not to be successful, in time or within the budget, for instance:

unforeseen risks/issues or in case the assumed solution for

foreseen risks are not feasible, or not clear defining of

requirements, resources or conditions, no clear communication which can cause a misunderstanding, etc.

3.1.2. Project Planning (9) (10) (7) (11)

- Project Planning is the second stage of Project Life Cycle. It starts right after the Kick Off has been sent, and

everything has been properly described. Project manager before establishing his/her detailed plan, he/she starts with

his/her action as follow: creates the team through Team

Member Selection and organizes meeting with the team members in order to ensure that the team has all necessary information that will be needed in the future.

Team Member Selection is not the same in every

Organizational Structure. However, the thesis is focused mainly on the Matrix Organizational Structure and both of

them will be explained later in detail.

This stage is estimated with high significance because it ensures that the team has a clear and understandable view for

the project, especially for the following parts: WBS, OBS,

PBS, plan, financial plan, activities, tasks, durations, resources

and many more information. The mentioned parts are used as a guide, reference or database knowledge by the project manager

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and the team. This means that it gives them basically the

management methodology and principle which is going to be used in order to achieve the objective and the goal. All these

plans may be documented in one document, but it is

recommended to create each one of them separately to be

properly sequenced.

WBS, PBS and OBS will be explained in a following

chapter of the thesis.

- Project Plan is considered as the main document. It

is mostly used by the project manager in order to track the work and progress. He/she especially concentrates on two

things: costs in order not to exceed the budget, and dates in

order to ensure that the service/product/result is delivered no

later than agreed time with the customer. It also helps to reduce constrains, uncertainty and avoid the

misunderstandings. Beside that it contains the major phases of

the project which are required to be undertaken also it needs to cover the below information:

- Statement of work: can be also found in a different

name, for instance: Work Defining stage or Work specifications stage, etc. however it is a formal document

which is written by project manager with the main purpose of

defining the scope of the work. To define the scope the

following information must be issued and included in detail: the activities, location, tasks, dependencies, roles,

responsibilities, duration, schedule, dependencies, financial

plan, communication, approval etc. - Activities (Tasks): defines accurately what work are

going to be done, what action is exactly going to be

undertaken, the characteristics and the impact of achieving the

outcome. - Roles and Responsibilities: provides clear

information for each team member for what assignments they

have been assigned, what are the responsibilities of each activity/task and what is expected from them to perform. Tasks

are assigned to current stuff based on some factor: the

experience, knowledge, availability and willingness.

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- Duration and schedule: contains timeframe for each

activity and task. For having a better structure, milestone can be used as well. Milestones are used to group the activities into

one group. In order to easily track the schedule and control it,

it is vital to have the following points: start date and end date

of each activity. The sum of duration for each activity should not be later than the agreed time with the customer for

delivering the requirements. However, it is not that easy as it

may look to define the overall duration of the activities. There are a lot of factors that should be taken under consideration;

therefore when setting up the duration and schedule, a deep

analyze of everything should be taken: feasibility of completing the tasks, the amount of work, the dependencies,

complexity, resource availability, etc. Beside the professional

analyzes also the calendar should be part of analyze, meaning

of public holidays, even weather, the absence of the employee, etc. A method which is used in this phase is CPM (Critical

Path Method). This method is known and is widely used as a

project management tool. It is a model as a network with nodes, which refers to activities and nodes which refers to start

and end point. It is used mainly to predict the time required to

complete each activity and the project itself. Another important characteristic is that it helps to identify which

activities are critical, by finding the path which requires a

longer amount of time.

- Dependencies: there are four types of dependencies, which helps better understand the meaning of it:

Finish-to-start (FS) means that the current task cannot start if the previous task is not completely finished. This dependency is very common in project

management,

Finish-to-finish (FF) means that the current task cannot finish if the previous one is not finished,

however it does not mean that they have to end at the same time,

Start-to-start (SS) means that the current task needs to start in order next task to start with the work,

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Start-to-finish (SF) means that current task cannot finish until the previous one starts. This dependency is

very rarely in project management in general.

- Feasibility study: is been reviewed one more time, in

more deep studies and analysis to prevent any constrain and

avoid any kind of obstacle that may happen. Sometimes this part maybe called a Risk Plan, but still the resource is the

same, the feasibility study which is performed in detail during

the initiation phase of the project. - Financial studies: these studies are performed after

having all information for activities, tasks, resources, duration

clearly identified. It contains a list of the expenses for each member of the team, equipments, administrative costs, etc. It

may also have a schedule of when and what will be paid. After

having the price for each expense, a total sum is being

calculated in order to simply check how much will be spent to finish the projects. A simple example of how the evidence of

each project member and/or equipment maybe calculated can

be found below:

Table 2: Members cost Table 3: Equipments cost

Tool Used: MS Office 2010 Tool Used: MS Office 2010

- Communication plan: is about the internal

communication and a communication with the customer. The

internal one is usually scheduled by the project manager with the team and portfolio manager. These communications are

usually done with meetings and are highly significant for the

project managers since even they have everything in place, they cannot simple assign the responsibilities to the team

members then to sit and to except what is required from them

Role Unit cost

Project manager Cost/hour

IT specialist Cost/hour

Administrator Cost/ hour

Total price Amount

Equipment Unit cost

Computers Cost/item

Furniture Cost/item

Materials Cost/item

Total price Amount

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for achieving the goal. He/she has to be continuously pro-

active by tracking the work and progress for having a better control. This can also have an impact of motivating the team.

In every meeting, a certain topic is discussed based on the

phase the project is. The communication with the customer is

also important since the client has a high focus on the requests and the requirements, and above all because they are paying

and thats why they are willing to be informed, therefore a meeting is held to inform them regularly about the current status, project activity and tasks status, the progress meaning

of what has been done, and what are the next steps, or in case

there is a proposal change to provide the information, etc. Usually every communication is being saved to have it as

evidence that what was exactly discussed at the certain time

and place. In some organizations, you can find it in some

platform which can be called as follows: MoM (Minutes of Meetings).

- Approve Project Plan: after having the document

prepared, it is sent to portfolio level, which is reviewed and approved. This approval includes the authorization of budget

and work to begin with the work. It means a negotiation of the

project manager with the portfolio or organization level to approve the budget (amount of money) and resources to allow

the team to spend for specified activities within the given

period of time. This approval varies depending on the type of

organization, it can be simple verbally agreed or it can be officially documented. For instance in Matrix structure

organization it is officially documented instead of verbal

agreement. The reason is because it is considered as a contract of work and is supporting the sub-projects. Basically, the

project manager is in the middle and is like a bridge of

communication between the organization and the team. He/she

has to convenience the organization for getting the approval and then is responsible to allocate it to the team, meaning that

he/she has to ensure that the team has everything necessary

and what is needed to perform their work and what is expected. After having this authorization approval confirmed,

the next stage can be running.

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3.1.3. Project Execution (9) (10) (7) (11)

Clearly this phase takes more time and more energy

than any other phase. In this phase, it is time to perform

everything that has been analyzed, studied, documented and approved. Not only this, but also to track, control and ensure

that everything is going towards the right path.

- Time Management process performing: this process helps the manager to increase the possibility of delivering the

outcome, facilitates the monitoring and tracks the current time

spent against the planned time to be spent. Not only time, it also helps to check the current status of the activities and tasks

performed, the ones that are completed and which ones are

about to complete. Beside this, a manager can also record

information collected during this process. For the record, the following tool is used: Timesheet. Usually it is completed on a

weekly basis, for having a weekly status of the work

performed by the team. - Cost Management process performing: this process

helps the project manager to control the expenses which are

being recorded from the team member by using the following template: Expense Forms. It basically gives a clear and

accurate view to the manager with the following information:

amount of money spent for each activity, the date when it

occurred, the type of the expense, etc. The expenses usually are approved before they are purchased and are registered by

the manager for having evidence through Expense register log.

- Quality Management process performing: The purposes of this process it to initiate the continuous increasing

or improve the quality of the teams deliverables. This is very critical since the manager will have a control of the quality of

the target which should be accomplished. - Change management process performing: not all the

projects are being performed successfully from the beginning

till the end as planned and because of that it is very rare that the change management is not being used. The reason is that

unforeseen incidents almost always occur. Even that

everything may look perfect in the beginning, still during the project phase it is very likely that a problem may raise or a

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better way of performing the activity may evolve. For not

experiencing bigger issues the project should be flexible to adjust to a particular change. Change management is usually

agreed with the customer and is being written in the contract.

It contains the condition on who can request the change,

timing window and the change template. It is actually in companies favor, because out of this change they can benefit

from it by receiving another profit. Every change is recorded

with the following information: requestor, time, reason, solution, etc. The managers should be very careful when they

accept change since they should ensure the change do not

impact the scope and the time of the project. - Issue and Risk management process performing: is

also very critical. The main purpose is about identifying,

monitoring, solving and mitigating anything that may affect

the project. The analyses are undertaken during the Initiation phase, therefore when a foreseen risk or issue appears a

solution is in place. However, it can appear in any phase of

the project lifecycle and in case an unforeseen risk or issue is being identified than it should be immediately raised,

registered, analyzed, solution or action should be find,

approved and then applied. - Communication management process performing: as

the process stated above, is about having regular meetings,

preferably weekly, in order to be informed with the following

information: the work, process, schedule, etc. It should be managed and registered by the project manager.

- Project review process performing: may be

performed by the end of each phase, in order to have the accurate results of the actions undertaken and produce the

result to the portfolio level. Usually the reviewers are some

independent skilled persons outside the current project in order

to review it more objectively.

3.1.4. Project Closure (9) (10) (7) (11)

Project Closure stage is the last one of Project Life

Cycle. When the result, product or service has been successfully delivered to the customer, it means that the

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project should have accomplished the objective. However, this

does not simply mean that the project manager has finished with his duty; therefore there are some further steps that should

be taken from his side: to perform the closure of the project.

This action requires time and budget, but still it is very

significant since it is the evidence of what and how was performed, later the level of success of the project can be

reviewed by the third party, can be taken as a reference for

other managers, especially for the new ones to improve, develop and gain new knowledge. As all phases, also this part

is subdivided into further steps:

- Documentation of Project Closure Report: this document is usually prepared by the manager, submitted by the

project sponsor and then is sent to customer for agreement

confirmation. The very basic closure document contains a

detailed description of what was the objective, including: the request, deliverables and benefits; than information of what

actions were performed, which is the most vital: activities

performed, risks and issues, what solutions were taken to overpass the problems; also information about the expenses,

schedule: when the project started and when the project was

closed. Nevertheless a detailed closure document may contain all information in detail regarding the project, beside the ones

that were mentioned above, it may include also: resources,

team members; change management: in case a change was

needed to be taken, also communication which was performed with the customer, etc.

- Customer agreement request: after completion of the mentioned report, it is the moment to send it to the customer, to review the project report and to confirm the agreement.

After receiving the confirmation from the customer, the

manager finally informs his/her team and everyone else that

was associated with the project. - Lessons learned: this information is highly important

and it is also documented. In companies, usually a meeting is

held to discuss with everyone regarding the lessons learned from the particular, or a questionnaire may be send to the

team. This document contains the following kind of

information: What went well in project? What could have been

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done better? What went wrong? How the issues/risks could

have been avoided? What are the recommendations? The purpose of this document is that it can be later used on new or

similar projects.

- Archive data: finally this is the last step that should be performed by the project manager. After having all information collected, sorted, written, maintained and

documented, than he/she follows the companys processes, procedures and rules to archive the data in order to protect the information.

It is not common, but it is worth to point out that after

all mentioned actions are performed, there is another additional stage: PIR meaning of Post-Implementation

Review, usually done by portfolio or program level of the

company. The endeavor has a single aim, to do the overall

assessment of the success of the project and especially the managers work, by deeper analysis of benefits realizations, objectives achieved, time management, risk and issue

management, what was achieved, etc.

Below is given a picture (nr: 3) of the Project Life

Cycle.

Picture 3: Project Life Cycle

Tool used: Paint.

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3.2. Project Decomposition Decomposition is known as a hierarchical structure or subdivision of project deliverables (products), staffing

resources and work into smaller components, with the

intention of better managing. This is also known as breakdown structure. There are three different types of decomposition:

Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) which answers the

question: Who? ; Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) which

answers the question: What? ; Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) which answers the question: How?

3.2.1. Product Breakdown Structure (6) (12) (13)

This kind of decomposition focuses on structuring the

deliverables into components. It gives a clear understanding on what is going to be delivered, actually what is needed to be

delivered in order to achieve the projects goal/s. PBS is required to facilitate project managers work to identify all work products, establish logical relationship of building collocation and to develop the WBS. By this we, understand

that PBS precedes WBS.

Usually, when the PBS is created the final product is put in the top of the structure or hierarchy and then is

subdivided into categories and/or elements of the project

deliverable. Below is given a picture (nr: 4) of Product Breakdown Structure:

Picture 4: Product Breakdown Structure

Tool used: http://www.wbstool.com/WBSEditor.php

24

3.2.2. Organization Breakdown Structure (14) (15)

Organization Breakdown Structure (also known as Organizational Breakdown Structure) illustrates the

responsibilities of activities of the individuals working on a particular project. This form basically describes the team

structure of the project organizational unit and department. It

also facilitates the understanding of the following points: the relationship of projects with subproject and relationship of the

reports within the organizational units.

Below is given a picture (nr: 5) of Organization

Breakdown Structure:

Picture 5: Organizational Breakdown Structure

Tool used: http://www.wbstool.com/WBSEditor.php

3.2.3. Work Breakdown Structure (6) (16) (1)

This variety of decomposition is the most known and

the most used one. There are different definitions of it however

Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), defines the Work Breakdown Structure as follows: a deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed

by the project team. (6)

Work Breakdown Structure is considered as a vital

step and it is established during the initial phase of the project,

right after the scope is identified. It represents the work as an

25

activity and also ensures that the project contain all the

required work to successfully accomplish the defined project objectives.

Project Manager creates the WBS for different related

purposes: to define the hierarchy of the deliverables with the

frameworks, to provide a better understanding of a project scope through graphical draw and/or textual sketch, building a

system to assess and integrate the performance of cost and

schedule, facilitates the reporting organization. All these functionalities help the project manager to track the status of

the projects progress. Below is given a picture (nr: 6) of Work Breakdown

Structure:

Picture 6: Work Breakdown Structure

Tool used: http://www.wbstool.com/WBSEditor.php

3.3. Project Organization

This part of the thesis elucidates the following three

major organizational forms for projects: Functional Organization, Projectized Organization and Matrix

Organization. However, it will mainly focus and concentrate

on the third organizational type.

26

3.3.1. Functional Organization (17) (18)

This type is known also as traditional category of

organization. Over the past years, it has successfully

accomplished the requirements with satisfactory control and minor issues. Nevertheless, as recently the business

developments rapidly changed in terms of technology

improvements and nowadays needs including the increasement of stakeholders demands, have created serious weaknesses.

The mentioned aspect means that previously organizations

could endure with even one or two product lines, but, as time went through the experts came to a conclusion that this

survival depended on a following so called factor

diversification, which means having multiple lines. However,

as the organizations developed the companies noticed that the activities unfortunately werent effectively integrated and it caused in increasing of issues and conflicts. This was the

motive of inventing the newer and better organizational forms which will be explained in the following part.

This variety of organizational form has some

advantages such as: the functional manager establishes the budget of the projects and after approval from the upper line

has a full control over it. The responsibility is clearly defined

and channel of communication is well planned since

employees report to a single individual. This feature also helps the functional manager having a good control and overview

over the team members.

Beside the good points, unfortunately there are some negative aspects of this type of organization as well. The most

significant one is that there is no client focal point. In this

organizational type usually are several layers between the

customer and project thus, this characteristic causes a slow response to customers needs. Decision making processes are usually slow since there is no member directly responsible for

the ongoing project and the top level management is involved in daily routine work. This tends to decreasement of

motivation for employees. Also, project managers work more

as coordinators since the functional managers have authority.

27

Below is given the picture (nr: 7) of the Functional

Organization:

Picture 7: Functional Organization Structure

Tool used: http://www.wbstool.com/WBSEditor.php

3.3.2. Projectized Organization (17) (18)

Nowadays this organizational kind is mostly used by

the companies. It is known for the fact that the project

managers maintain full authority for ongoing projects after the authority has been given by general manager. Having the full

control and overview of the project means that team members

of the project are directly responsible to manager of the project. This method of reporting and communication has a

significantly high impact on establishing the communication

channel within the team. This kind of strategy leads to quicker

decision making process which makes the project capable to react rapidly for new customer needs and demands.

When it comes to the perspective of analyzing the

other view for this kind of organization, unfortunately there are several negative points of it. When this form is applied and

28

implemented especially in a company which is multi-product,

running several project in the same time, it will be expensive to cover all the expenses. The reason is that each one of the

running projects should be fully staffed. Individuals are

assigned to a single project, therefore there is no space and

availability of sharing individuals for reducing costs. This leads to duplication of the personnel. Although, another fact

that should be consider is the availability of facilities and

equipments. The conflict may arise if there is a situation where the same equipment is required in the same time for two or

more different and/or not related projects. In this situation the

upper level of management decides which project to use it first based on the several aspects: impact, importance, priority etc,

or another solution is duplication of the facilities which will

increase the cost. Further weak and worrying point for

individuals of the team is the career continuity and opportunity.

Below is given the picture (nr: 8) of the Projectized Organization:

Picture 8: Projectized Organization Structure

Tool used: http://www.wbstool.com/WBSEditor.php

Matrix Structure Organization takes part in the

following of the thesis as chapter.

29

4. Matrix Organization The following part of the thesis contains the focus and

the concentration on the Matrix Structure Organization. In the

beginning the literature review will be enlightened, afterward it will be followed by the interview made with individuals,

who are part, actually have experiences in such structure and

analysis done of the outcome from the interviews.

4.1. Literature Review (19) (20) (18) (21)

This kind is a blend of two mentioned organizational

forms: Functional Organization and Projectized Organization. It has been established with the idea of combining the

advantages of the two mentioned structures and creating a

single form which will deliver higher efficiency with minimum risk. However, it is worth to point out that even this form does

not provide the perfect solution for organizations that are

implementing it in their business since there are several

challenges in general that they are experiencing. This sort of organizational structure was first

incorporated by huge oil industry, large car manufactures,

high-technology companies, such as NASA, etc. They had to adapt to such a structure, for improvement and facilitation in

order to deal with the customers increasement demand. There are two cords of ordering (commands) in Matrix

Structure Organization, which are known as vertical and horizontal. When a draw of this organizational chart is made in blank paper, it results to a matrix form and this is the reason

why it has been called in this approach. The vertical line represents the operations and deals with issues related to the

project whereas the horizontal line represents the functional

division and therefore deals with the problems directly related with it. Each project in the vertical line of the organization has

an individual responsible as Line Manager for a project which

is usually temporary and in the other side also each functional

division has an individual working as Functional Manager whereas this line is permanent.

30

The figure given below nr: 9, demonstrates a clear

view how classical Matrix Structure Organization resembles. However, it may differ in terms of how it is implemented in

certain organizations and/or companies depending on their

business need, but they all are based on the instance given

below nr: 9. In some organization and/or company, an individual may be hired with the following position: Program

Manager, whose responsibility is to have a control over all

running projects.

Below is given the picture (nr: 9) of the Matrix

Structure Organization:

Picture 9: Projectized Organization Structure

Software used: SmartDraw (http://www.smartdraw.com/)

The jobs responsibility of the functional manager and line manager is different but very crucial for making the

Matrix Structure efficient within the organizations and/or companies work. Therefore, their collaboration should,

actually must be in high and professional level. Another fact

which should be taken under consideration for making the

31

collaboration effective is that their roles and responsibilities

should be clear and fully understood by each and everyone within the team. However, their task may be depended on how

the structure is applied and implemented, but their general

tasks are the same.

In general the main responsibilities of the functional manager in Matrix Structure are the following: ensuring the

project meets the objectives, controlling of scope, budget as

well schedule, monitor the progress and improvement of the projects, supervising the project resources, organizing

meetings with the client and stakeholders, etc.

In general the main responsibilities of the line manager in Matrix Structure are the following: ensure the resources and

data for the projects, maintain technical excellence for project

managers, controlling and managing technical stuff, organizing

trainings for project team members, participating in meetings with project managers for information purposes, etc.

It is very common that functional managers put the

line managers under big pressure to ensure more resources for the project. The reason is that functional managers somehow

depend on line managers to meet the project objectives, since

they need the right resources and equipment/technology. Furthermore, considering the perspective of the vision, it

differs between them since the functional managers are

focusing on the project itself only, which means they are

concentrating on the short-term goals, while on the other side the line manager are concentrating on the long-term goals

because they are part of permanent division within the

structure.

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4.2. Interview Procedure

The interview was conducted with the selected

employees only from IBM GSDC (International Business

Machines - Global Service Delivery Center) located in Brno, Czech Republic. The selected employees were based on the

following conditions: having knowledge and being familiar

with the matrix organization structure, as well having experience more than 4 (four) years in such structure and being

part of different business area and/or background, such as the

following profession: Project Manager, Portfolio Manager, Transition Transformation Manager, Project Coordinator,

Project Administrator, Team Leader, Contract Business Office

and Cost Manager.

The questions prepared were the type of Semi-Structured Questionnaire and consisted of 10 (ten) questions

in total. The interview was conducted through face to face

method when available, or with the use of the following application: Skype. Another application used during the

interview was Voice Recorder.

The target of the participants was 20 (twenty), but because of the following phenomenon: Saturation of Data,

which means the information were almost the same and no

new information were given by participants till the number of

15 (fifteen), therefore the total number of participants in the interview is 15 (fifteen).

Below the schedule of the interview can be found:

The Interview had two parts:

First Part contained questions about the Matrix Structure Organization.

1. Do you understand what Matrix Structure Organization is? How?

2. What are the advantages of Matrix Structure Organization?

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3. What are the disadvantages of Matrix Structure Organization?

4. Line Manager and Functional Manager! How do you see the importance, authority and co-operation of

these two lines in Matrix Structure Organization?

5. Having two bosses and dual reporting? Whats your concern on this point?

Second part contained questions (except the last question) about the projects in Matrix Structure Organization.

1. Who decides if the Project is going to be taken? Is the Project Manager involved in this phase, or the project

is given after the decision has been made?

2. Resources! Who creates the team after the KICK OFF is sent?

3. What is your opinion about Decision making? Is there any procedure?

4. How the projects are run in Matrix Structure Organization you are part of?

5. Do you like being part of this structure, or you would like to rather change it?

34

4.2.1. Questions related to Matrix Structure

Organization

1. Do you understand what Matrix Structure Organization is? How?

The experience of being part of Matrix Structure

Organization for couple years has given a great opportunity

and a chance to learn and having an understandable overview for individuals, however not an expert. On the question of

understanding the structure 100% (out of 15 interviewees) has

answered with: Yes! When it comes to the perspective of how the individuals

see and/or understand this structure, 80% (12 out of 15) of

interviewees answered that: this structure means having two lines of managing: functional line from one side and

projectized line from the other side, and the rest 20% (3 out of 15) of interviewees consider this structure as resource

sharing flexibility.

2. What are the advantages of Matrix Structure Organization?

When this point was discussed during the interview with

the participants, there were few related facts mentioned by

them which consider as good-points of this structure when implemented, nevertheless the first thing that was considered

as a very beneficial and highly crucial pointed out 60% (9 out

of 15) of the interviewees for the good of the business of the company was the Utilization of resources.

Therefore, matrix structure is very flexible in terms of

sharing the resources among business units. This means that

this structure facilitates a single resource or more when available to have the opportunity to be shared among the teams

for a certain business reasons and if needed to be partially

assigned to several projects running in the same time. This opportunity in some point eliminates the need of

hiring new individuals for short-term for a particular project

and also brings several benefits for companies who are

35

applying this organizational structure, especially for

individuals in terms of: learning by sharing practices and experience, professional development by exchanging

information, knowledge, advancing soft skills by

communication etc. Furthermore, the managers can create the

team by available resources for a particular project in a shorter time, while this structure enables the resources to move

quickly when they are available so by that the work can start

immediately after the Kick Off of the project is being sent to project manager, whereas if you consider hiring a new

individual, a manager will need to spend additional time and

effort such the following: doing the necessary administrative paperwork, getting familiar with the environment, getting all

required accesses, having the so called transfer skills period,

passing the trial period and so on.

The procedure of assignment of the resources in the

project is a broad topic. It brings some good and bad points,

however the disadvantages of this will be subsequently enlightened in detail.

Communication among the business units has been noted by 40% (6 out of 15) of interviewees as another benefit which

Matrix Organization Structure brings to the business of the

organization who are implementing it, in this case IBM. The

participants consider this factor as quite beneficial for the strategy of the company. Beside the fact that the teams can

learn from each other some tips and tricks by sharing

knowledge and experience, it also has an impact on avoiding in the future any kind of conflicts which can damage the

companys business or can lead to the failure of another project. To better understand the above instance of the

advantage a great example has been given by an interviewee which can be found below:

V.L. (Transition and Transformation Manager): the organizational units communicate to each other and thats a great thing which this structure enables us. By this we can

avoid the mistake that Motorola did in past. They used to have

36

Projectized Structure and what happened is that they had

different units and each unit was working independently on their work so they had wireless division which were working

for walkie talkies, CBA radios and there was a division that

was working on phones, etc. They worked as independent units

and never really spoke to each other and what happened in the end is that they started to making products internally so the

phone unit actually made a cell phone that was also walkie

talky somehow and they crashed the business of the wireless units, since they developed a product which was easier to use

and more functional. Below is given a picture (nr: 10) regarding the statistics

of the answers given by the interviewees for the current

question:

Picture 10: Advantages of Matrix Structure Organization

Tool Used: MS Office 2010

3. What are the disadvantages of Matrix Structure Organization?

Throughout the discussion of this question with the participants regarding the disadvantages of the structure, they

expressed their concerns they have experienced during their

work experience. However, one of the given answers which

Advantages of Matrix Structure Organization

60% Utilization of

resources

40% Communication

37

can be found below is considered to be quite interesting and

significant:

D.C. (Project Manager):With Matrix Organization you have more details which is good, you know exactly who is doing

what and who is responsible for what, but that creates a biggest problem, because you have the limitation: this is my

job I dont do that, talk to the other guy; the other guy says: I am doing 30% but the third guy is doing the rest of it therefore talk to him, and sometimes is never ending

By given the mentioned standpoint by D.C., it is clearly understandable that matrix structure organization contains

quite lot employees, which means too many resources

involved. This can cause difficulties such as: trying to find

certain information; making any kind of decision might be challenging since the responsibility are shared; slow feedback

response, etc.

Another fact obtained from the mentioned answer by

interviewee is that this structure is very well structured,

organized and contains supplementary details of who is doing what. This is very efficient especially for any newcomer in

such company since he/she can easier find any information

required or even desired. However, as pointed by the D.C.

having such well structured structure, brings a limitation to employees. They might not take a decision in case they are not

fully committed and if they dont have full responsibility. In this instance, it can lead to the fact that resources might concentrate more on their own responsibility instead of

working as a team. They might fully concentrate on their own

duty and what have to deliver and not to see it as a whole

project.

This means that each one of the resource can have

his/her own understanding and perspective to the request which they receive from the customer. Therefore, my

suggestion in this instance is that the project manager is the

one who should be more active and lead the team as unique.

38

Moreover, he/she should pay attention and be careful when

explaining the project, what is written in the contract and should ensure avoiding any kind of misunderstanding or

confusion.

Limitation as briefly mentioned previously was pointed out 46% (7 out of 15) of interviewees as another

disadvantage of the structure. Having very well structured

organization does not allow employees to do work above the boundaries of their responsibilities because in this case they

will take someone elses duty. Unfortunately in some occasions this can have a negative impact. A simple illustration is given bellow to better understand the fact

specified above. The instance is not related to the business of

IBM, but is a simple explanation on what means to have

limitation to work, the risk and impact: Imagining having situation when there is a fire on the next door and a person

recognizing situation is not responsible for calling the

Firefighters. While looking for the right person to make a call the flame is rising continuously and so does the damages.

After the person who is responsible for making a call arrives

and makes a call, and while waiting for the Firefighters to come to the place still flame and damages are rising, and the

ones who are waiting are not allowed to make any kind of

endeavor to stop the flame and avoid the further damages.

Two bosses and reporting was mentioned 86% (13 out

of 15) by interviewees. However this concern is part of the

question nr: 5 (five) and will be explained in detail in the following part of the thesis.

No Continuity, the team changes a lot is a further

concern given by another Project Manager B.B. What does he means by that? The fact is that in Matrix Structure

Organization when a project is done, the project manager is

assigned to another project and this does not mean that he/she will work with the same team that he/she had before. The new

available resources will be assigned to the current project. This

however could be a negative thing since the team members

39

will need time and additional effort to better know each other

and build the effective relationship. Also the project manager can invest in any resource more, but in the future he/she might

not have the opportunity to have the desired resources for

some time. In some cases people may like it since it is more

dynamic, flexible and active experience but in the other side people try to be more stabile and the Matrix Structure

Organization does not allow such a thing. However

considering the business it might be more effective having a stabile one. Considering the opposite perspective, not just

changing the resource, but sometimes there are instances

where a project manager changes suddenly. The interviewees pointed out the anxiety of this instance since the new manager

brings new priorities and changes within the team and in this

situation the resources should be flexible to adapting to a new

system. The resources are not satisfied to experience this kind of changes in their work. One of the given answers by the

interviewee can be found below:

S.V. (Contract Business Office): I am here for long time, almost 6 years, and through this time I had 5 Functional

Managers and 4 People (Line) Managers, and each time I had to adjust to their way of working and each time I had to report

each way the information they wanted from me and I find this

difficult and also frustrating

Assignment of the Resource was mentioned as another

anxiety from 60% (9 out of 15) of interviewees. Even though

they consider the flexibility of the assignment and sharing of resource as one of the best advantages of the Matrix Structure

Organization, however in practice it brings to them some

headache. The fact is that it does not allow the project

managers to have the resources they want but the ones that are available in a pool. Sometimes the available ones may not be

in the level of experience, skill and knowledge required

therefore in some cases they go through some additional training or special education. However most likely what is

happening is that the leaders consider the priority and

40

importance of the projects and based on this they assign the

resources they have in the pool.

Virtual Teams has been mentioned from 46% (7 out of

15) interviewees as disadvantage. Usually, Matrix Structure

Organization is applied and implemented in huge companies, because it requires a large number of resources. Analyzing the

companies that have this structure in their business usually are

the big ones and they have centers in different places of the world, so does IBM. The service delivery center is centralized

in different places and sometimes the available resources

might be in different centers. What is happening in the delivery center of IBM in Brno is that sometimes resources

might be in a different geography and this brings advantages

and disadvantages as well.

The advantage is that there is a solution in place if the

resource is available in another place and there might not be a

need of hiring a new member or taking external resource. Nevertheless bringing the resource to one center costs

additional expenses and time, so thats another disadvantages. If there is no additional cost than the resources perform virtually and this brings several pain point, for instance the

differentiation of time zone (GMT) or it can lead to slow

feedback response etc.

What IBM does to enable the team to be more effective

is that in this case of virtual team the project manager

organizes the Kick Off meetings face to face, which means brings the resources to the best center based on the location

they are and organizes the first meetings together, so by that

the team members have the opportunity to better now each

other, and together they create the communication matrix that they are going to follow.

Below is given a picture (nr: 11) regarding the statistics of the answers given by the interviewees for the current

question:

41

Picture 11: Disadvantages of Matrix Structure Organization

Tool Used: MS Office 2010

4. Line Manager and Functional Manager! How do you see the importance, authority and co-operation of these two lines in Matrix Structure Organization?

In Matrix Organization Structure, functional manager

and line manager are the main actors, since they represent the streaming of managing two directions of the organization. To

understand the importance of two them, the responsibilities

should be known by employees who are part of it. It was the same case with the participants. However, they had a clear

view and understanding of the activities that they perform

within the organizations they are.

67% (10 of 15) of interviewees have given the same name to line manager. They consider him as capacity manager,

the one who is responsible to see if they have enough capacity

for the line he/she is supporting and to ensure that they have the required capacity to perform the work.

From the answers of the participants are obtained the following responsibilities in real practice of the Line Manager

who is part of the Matrix Structure Organization: the one who

is responsible for resources and as mentioned ensuring the

Disadvantages of Matrix Structure

Organization

86% Two Bosses

60% Assignment of Resources 46% Virtual Teams

7% No continuity

7% Limitation

42

capacity for the projects; 73% (11 out of 15) of the

interviewees believe he/she is responsible for the salary payment of the employees and as well responsible in terms of

the one having high an impact on confirming the promotion for

the employees for higher salary; position as for the salary, also

the one having impact of confirming the promotion for employees in term of getting to a higher position within the

company; responsible for performing paper work and

administrative activities; another vital duty is the improvement and development of the employees by ensuring and offering

trainings, mentoring and different kind of education; checking

claiming of hours and over times, as well as the holidays of the employees is another activity expected to perform from the

line manager, etc.

53% (8 out of 15) of interviewees have called the Functional Manager with the following name: Business Manager, considering that he is the one who directing the

business of the company.

From the answers of the participants are obtained the

following responsibilities in real practice of the functional

manager who is part of the Matrix Structure Organization: responsible for the business and the functions; the one who is

giving the work to the employees and organizing what should

they be doing and what are excepted to perform and deliver

from them; another perspective explained is that Functional Manager is the one who is using the resources in a best way to

get a certain job done; responsible for giving business

directions to the resources and planning what is next; responsible to help and facilitate certain issues in case the

resources are experiencing anything which prevents their work

and activity; responsible to find out together with the

employees their weak points and giving directions to them how to develop and/or improve, etc.

On the discussion of the importance, expectedly all of the participants estimate the two of managers with high

significance, since clearly they are the ones who are managing

43

from one side the people and from the other side managing the

business. However, regarding the authority the participants could not distinguish between them and as a conclusion it

came to a point that the authority is shared. From this

illustration it is understood that the Matrix Structure which is

applied in IBM is balanced.

Regarding the cooperation of the functional and line

manager, 93% (14 out of 15) of the interviewees have answered that even they have different interest, in some point

they cooperate in terms of the business and the good of the

company and they consider it as very crucial for business beneficial and good atmosphere within the team. On the other

side 7% of the interviewees which in this case only one (1) out

of 15 (fifteen) of the interviewees which was Cost Manager

(S.W.) answered that from her own experience they dont cooperate as expected and they only concentrate on the scope

of their work. S.W. believes that sometimes the cooperation

depends on the people; however she thinks that they should cooperate.

Below are given pictures (nr: 12 and nr: 13) regarding the statistics of the answers given by the interviewees for the

current question:

44

Picture nr: 12 and nr: 13: Perspective and Cooperation of

Functional Manager and Line Manager

Tool Used: MS Office 2010

5. Having two bosses and dual reporting? Whats your concern on this point?

As mentioned in the second question having two bosses and dual report has been pointed out by 86% of the

participants of the interview and it is seen as a crucial point for

them. In Matrix Structure Organization individuals have two

bosses and this means that necessarily it is required from them to report twice and this means a dual report and/or dual effort.

Theoretically is said that it might cause confusion to whom

what exactly to report or from whom what to expect. However in IBM this confusion has been solved by having the

Document of Understanding or by building the Matrix

Communication. In these documents are clearly described the roles and responsibilities, scope of the work has been clarified,

to whom what should be reported has been written and the

managers know from the resources what to expect. Everything

in the beginning is agreed, planned and understood between the resource and the manager, therefore there shouldnt be any problem, issue or confusion, and in case there are, they should

Perspective

67% Capacity Manager

53% Business Manager

Cooperation

93% Yes

7% No

45

go back to the agreement and clarify the situation based on the

agreement.

However, the concern was not the confusion of the

report, but having two bosses. It means that each boss, in this

case Line Manager and Functional Manager, have their own priorities which might be different, so the resource is in the

middle and needs to satisfy them both, meaning satisfying two

different requirements. Sometimes resources cannot fully satisfy them, when the priority of one manager can be lower

than the priority of the other manager.

Unexpectedly, on the additional question: Who do you

consider as more important: Line Manager or Functional

Manager? 93.3% of (14 out of 15) participants consider the

Line Manager as more important since they believe that they are the ones who can have an impact on the assigning to a

higher position or for higher a salary etc, and 1 (one) of them

consider the Functional Manager as more important. She answered with the following answer:

R.D. (Cost Manager): I see my Functional Manager as my boss and I am more in contact with him for the work therefore

I learn a lot from him and that is the reason why I consider

him as more important.

46

4.2.2. Questions regarding the projects in Matrix

Structure Organization

1. Who decides if the Project is going to be taken? Is the Project Manager involved in this phase, or the project is given after the decision has been made?

On the discussion of this question 26.5% (4 out of 15) of

interviewees didnt know the answer who decides if the project is going to be accepted or not, while the rest had an opinion on

it. 47% (7 out of 15) of interviewees answered that there is a so called: Steering Department responsible for decision of taking

new projects and 26.5% (4 out of 15) of interviewees answered

that Functional Managers is the one who is responsible to

decide if the project is going to be accepted. The differentiation of the answers regarding the question

by 11 interviewees is the perspective how they see the

projects. The fact is that in the business of IBM who are applying the Matrix Structure, there are some small requests

received from a client which are treated as projects and are

called RFS (Request for Service), and in this case the functional manager which can be Portfolio Manager, is in

contact with the customer and makes a decision the of the

nature of the request. Therefore he/she decides if the request is

going to be taken and afterwards he/she assigns the RFS to the right available project manager he/she has and sends the Kick

Off. On the other side, in case there are bigger/complex

projects or new customer coming to a business than its the instance where Steering Department takes place. In this

situation the negotiation or it can even be called as well

Initiation Phase, is being performed by people who are responsible for it. Based on given information Steering

Department is a board with some experienced, skilled and well

knowledge employees who are able to perform professional

and as well high level of negotiation with the client. On the additional question whether the project manager

is involved from the beginning, Negotiation/Initiation phase,

the interviewees had the same answer, that it depends on the instance, but however in general cases they are not part of it.

47

The project is being approved and then Kick Off is sent to

them.

Nevertheless, my suggestion in such instance would be

that the project manager should be part of a negotiation phase,

or to know what is likely to happen, or at least they should be informed in advance. Imagining the situation of not being part

at all and receiving the Kick Off might require additional time

to understand the contract and what is written. If he/she does not understand something then needs to go back to portfolio

manager to ask and so on. Sometimes the biggest problem is

that the project manager understands what is written but does not fully understand what to deliver in the end and requires

clarification. The main aim of the mentioned point is that

sometimes the project manager would need additional time

before he/she starts with the work because of not being involved from the beginning.

Below is given a picture (nr: 14) regarding the statistics of the answers given by the interviewees for the current

question:

Picture nr: 14: Who decides if the Project is going to be taken

Tool Used: MS Office 2010

Who decides if the Project is going to be taken

26.5% Don't know

47% Steering Department

26.5% Functional Manager

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2. Resources! Who creates the team after the Kick Off is sent?

The creation of a team is considered to be highly crucial

since the members are the ones that will drive the project with

their performance. For that reason the current question is part of the interview to find out how it works in an environment

with Matrix Structure Organization.

Participants have answered that after the Kick Off is

sent, it is the responsibility of project managers to create the team. In fact the portfolio manager selects the project manager

and then is the activity when he/she is assigned. This activity is

going through an official procedure which is called: Resource Deployment Request (RDR). In this process the project

manager provides information about the resource needed. The

request contains a clear requirement of what type of resource is needed, the level of knowledge, skills, experience, and how

many are required. Also there is additional information on this

request which is the band of the employee. The band is a

number, actually seen as a coefficient of the employee which is obtained based on the experience and knowledge the

employee posses. The number of the band reflects the quality

of the employee i.e. the higher the band the more qualified the employee is. This request is raised to organizational line. It

needs to get approved by several levels and then it goes to

delivery organization. Afterward they check the request and

provide the information to project manager about the candidates they contain. After receiving the information he/she

checks the candidates. In some instances interviews are

organized and the candidates are selected. However, the explained procedure is more likely about the resources that are

available, and this is the ideal situation. In real practice it is

more challenging. The fact is that there is never enough resources for

everything that it is needed to be delivered. What occurs is

Prioritization. The company prioritizes the most significant

and most beneficial projects. One of the answers given by the interviewee enlightens this:

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V.C. (Project Manager): we cannot do everything since the resources are limited and have to be dedicated to the most important activities in company. There might be times when

the projects that are going needs to be stopped, or postponed

or even not executed and somebody obviously will not be

happy about it.

Therefore, as explained by the interviewee that there

might be instances when ongoing project might be stopped or postponed, the resources that were assigned will subsequently

change the assignment and they will be part of another team,

fully or partly assigned, it depends on the situation. This is sharing of resources and flexibility of the resource utilization

that Matrix Structure Organization enables to the company. A

different perspective has been given by one of the interviewee

for the explained instance:

D.C. (Project Manager): Team creation to me is like playing chess. We assign a resource 0.2 FTE to one project and 0.8 FTE to another project, than one employee can be even part of

three projects, and rarely are cases when a resource is part of

a single project for 1.0 FTE

Mentioned FTE by interviewee means Full Time

Equivalent. It describes how much a resource is assigned to a

particular project. 1.0 FTE means a resource is fully assigned, 40 hours per week, or it might be assigned to two different

projects which mean 0.5 FTE for each one which is 20 hours

per week, and so on.

3. What is your opinion about Decision making? Is there any procedure?

The question prepared for the participants regarding the

Decision making process was found broad and for that reason

it has been divided in two parts: 3.1. Decision making related to changes in ongoing projects and 3.2. Decision making

regarding assigning of selected resource.

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3.1. Decision making related to changes in ongoing projects: 73% (11 out of 15) of the interviewees have answered that there is a process which is called: Change

Management Process, which is related to changes in ongoing

projects, and the rest of 27% (4 out of 15) of the interviewees

didnt know about the current concern, since they havent experienced such a thing.

Based on the information given from 73% of the

participants, Change Management Process is one of the main parts of the Project Plan made by project managers in the

beginning of the project and is considered as the board of

people who decides for changes. In this process, project manager identifies a board which contains individuals who are

having a significant impact directly and indirectly on the

project. These individuals are depending on the project, but in general there are limited numbers of people. The minimum can

be 2 (two), the project manager and the stakeholder, the

maximum is not identified since it depends on the project,

however it is recommended not to contain so many since the decision taking can be more complex. In some instances even

employees can be part of the board and these employees could

be: TSM (Technical Solution Manager), or Lead IT Architect etc, who are there to describe specific technical problem and/or

difficulty in a situation when a change is about to get

approved/confirmed. In general the changes depend on the part

of the business which is affecting, the kind of deliverable and the impact the change will take, however the project manager

is the one who identifies the change and refers to the board

who is giving the final approval. After the change is made than the sponsor is being informed by the project manager.

Mentioned sponsor might have very broad understanding

therefore followingly an instance is given for better understanding: in case there is a project for developing a

product such as: laptop or self-phone, than a sponsor could be

the end user of the mentioned product.

There might also be some other cases for a decision

making process made by a board who is responsible for a

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certain project and project manager might not be part of it, for

instance: a board can delegate certain type of decision to project manager, if the budget is limited for some time and the

project manager should reduce the cost of the project for the

given period.

3.2. Decision making regarding assigning of selected

resource: 73% (11 out of 15) of the interviewees also took part

on discussion of this question, since the rest were not informed and had no experience with this processes.

The bigges