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Software Project Management (CS615)
LECTURE # 27
5. ORGANIZATION
5.1
Basic Definition
Basically, an organization is a group of people intentionally organized to
accomplish an overall, common goal or set of goals. Business organizations can
range in size from two people to tens of thousands.
How you interpret each of the above major parts of an organization depends very
much on your values and your nature. People can view organizations as machines,
organisms, families, groups, etc.
People are managed through an organizational structure. This hierarchical
structure is based on the four cornerstones of management:
­
Delegation
­
Authority
­
Responsibility
­
Supervision.
Delegation bestows authority, and authority produces (and requires)
responsibility. Both authority and responsibility require supervision, and effective
supervision requires a suitable organizational structure:
Most projects are organized as teams, with each team assigned specific functions
within the project.
Different types of project require different types of team structure, as for example
a team of junior programmers requires a technical team leader while a team of
experts may require only an administrative team leader.
It is the project manager's responsibility to select the structure best suited for the
project.
Basically an organization is a group of people intentionally organized to
accomplish an overall, common goal or set of goals. Business organizations can
range in size from two people to tens of thousands.
How you interpret each of the above major parts of an organization depends very
much on your values and your nature. People can view organizations as machines,
organisms, families, groups, etc.
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Software Project Management (CS615)
5.2
Organization as a System
It helps to think of organizations are systems.
Simply put, a system is an organized collection of parts that are highly integrated
in order to accomplish an overall goal.
The system has various inputs which are processed to produce certain outputs,
which together, accomplish the overall goal desired by the organization.
There is ongoing feedback among these various parts to ensure they remain
aligned to accomplish the overall goal of the organization. There are several
classes of systems, ranging from very simple frameworks all the way to social
systems, which are the most complex. Organizations are, of course, social
systems.
Systems have inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes. To explain, inputs to the
system include resources such as raw materials, money, technologies and people.
These inputs go through a process where they're aligned, moved along and
carefully coordinated, ultimately to achieve the goals set for the system. Outputs
are tangible results produced by processes in the system, such as products or
services for consumers.
Another kind of result is outcomes, or benefits for consumers, e.g., jobs for
workers, enhanced quality of life for customers, etc. Systems can be the entire
organization, or its departments, groups, processes, etc.
Feedback comes from, e.g., employees who carry out processes in the
organization, customers/clients using the products and services, etc.
Feedback also comes from the larger environment of the organization, e.g.,
influences from government, society, economics, and technologies.
Each organization has numerous subsystems, as well. Each subsystem has its own
boundaries of sorts, and includes various inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes
geared to accomplish an overall goal for the subsystem.
Common examples of subsystems are departments, programs, projects, teams and
processes to produce products or services, etc.
Organizations are made up of people - who are also systems of systems of
systems - and on it goes. Subsystems are organized in a hierarchy needed to
accomplish the overall goal of the overall system.
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The organizational system is defined by, e.g., its legal documents (articles of
incorporation, by laws, roles of officers, etc.), mission, goals and strategies,
policies and procedures, operating manuals, etc.
The organization is depicted by its organizational charts, job descriptions,
marketing materials, etc.
The organizational system is also maintained or controlled by policies and
procedures, budgets, information management systems, quality management
systems, performance review systems, etc.
5.3
Structural Dimensions
The organization's structure, or design, is the overall arrangement of the
organization's various roles, processes and their relationships in the organization.
The design of an organization is a means to accomplishing the organization's
overall goal - the structure is not an end in itself.
In systems theory terms, the design ensures that the appropriate inputs go through
the necessary processes to produce the required outputs to produce the intended
outcomes.
Centralization -the extent to which functions are dispersed in the
organization, either in terms of integration with other functions or
geographically
Formalization - regarding the extent of policies and procedures in the
organization
Hierarchy - regarding the extent and configuration of levels in the
structure
Routinization - regarding the extent that organizational processes are
standardized
Specialization - regarding the extent to which activities are refined
Training - regarding the extent of activities to equip organization
members with knowledge and skills to carry out their roles.
5.4
Organizational Systems
Project-based organizations are those whose operations consist primarily of
projects. These organizations fall into two categories:
­ Organizations that derive their revenue primarily from performing projects for
others--architectural firms, engineering firms, consultants, construction con-
tractors, government contractors, nongovernmental organizations, etc
­ Organizations that have adopted management by projects, these organizations
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Software Project Management (CS615)
tend to have management systems in place to facilitate project management.
For example, their financial systems are often specifically designed for
accounting, tracking, and reporting on multiple simultaneous projects.
Non project-based organizations often lack management systems designed to
support project needs efficiently and effectively.
The absence of project-oriented systems usually makes project management more
difficult.
In some cases, non project-based organizations will have departments or other
subunits that operate as project-based organizations with systems to match.
The project management team should be acutely aware of how the organization's
systems affect the project.
For example, if the organization rewards its functional managers for charging
staff time to projects, then the project management team may need to implement
controls to ensure that assigned staff members are being used effectively on the
project.
5.5
Organizational Cultures and Styles
Most organizations have developed unique and describable cultures. These
cultures are reflected in their:
­
Shared values,
­
Norms,
­
Beliefs
­
Expectations
­
Policies and
­
Procedures
­
View of authority relationships and numerous other factors
Organizational cultures often have a direct influence on the project.
­
A team proposing an unusual or high-risk approach is more likely to secure
approval in an aggressive or entrepreneurial organization.
­
A project manager with a highly participative style is apt to encounter
problems in a rigidly hierarchical organization, while a project manager with
an authoritarian style will be equally challenged in a participative
organization.
The structure of the performing organization often constrains the availability of or
terms under which resources become available to the project.
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Organizational structures can be characterized as spanning a spectrum from
functional to projectized, with a variety of matrix structures in between.
The following table shows key project related characteristics of the major types of
enterprise organizational structures:
Table: Organizational Structure Influences on Projects
Project
Organization
Functional
Matrix
Projectized
Characteristics
Structure
Weak
Balanced
Strong
Little or non
Limited
Low to
Moderate
High to
Project Manager's Authority
Moderate
to High
almost Total
Virtually
Percent of Performing
None
0-25%
15-60%
50-95%
85-100%
Organization's Personnel assigned
Full time to Project work
Part-time
Part time
Full-time
Full-time
Full-time
Project Manager's Role
Project
Project
Project
Project
Project
Common Titles for Project
Manager/
Manager/
Manager/Pr
Coordinato
Coordinator/
Manager's Role
Program
Program
oject
r/ Project
Project
Manager
Manager
Officer
Leader
Leader
Part-time
Part time
Part-time
Full-time
Full-time
Project Management
Administrative Staff
5.6
Traditional Structures of Business Organization
i.
Functional Structure
Most business organizations start out with a functional structure, or a small
variation of this structure. This is the basic "building block" for other structures.
In this structure, there is a central office which oversees various departments or
major functions, e.g., human resources, finances, sales, marketing, engineering,
etc.
Think of a picture that has a box at the top labeled "Central Office". Think of a
row of boxes underneath the top box. Each box is labeled, e.g., sales, engineering,
human resources, etc.
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Connect the boxes with lines coming down from the top box to each of the boxes
below. Use functional structures when the organization is small, geographically
centralized, and provides few goods and services.
When the organization experiences bottlenecks in decision making and
difficulties in coordination, it has outgrown its functional structure.
The classic functional organization is a hierarchy where each employee has one
clear superior. Staff members are grouped by specialty, such as production,
marketing, engineering, and accounting at the top level, with engineering further
subdivided into functional organizations that support the business of the larger
organization (e.g., mechanical and electrical).
Functional organizations still have projects, but the perceived scope of the project
is limited to the boundaries of the function: the engineering department in a
functional organization will do its work independent of the manufacturing or
marketing departments.
For example, when a new product development is undertaken in a purely
functional organization, the design phase is often called a design project and
includes only engineering department staff. If questions about manufacturing
arise, they are passed up the hierarchy to the department head, who consults with
the head of the manufacturing department. The engineering department head then
passes the answer back down the hierarchy to the engineering project manager.
ii.
Projectized Structure
In this structure, there is a centralized corporate office and under it, are various
divisions each of which is dedicated to producing and / or selling a certain type of
business or product, e.g., product 1, product 2, etc.
Each division that is dedicated to a certain business or product is, in turn, is
organized as its own functional structure.
So, for example, the division dedicated to making product 1 has its own sales
department, human resources, etc. Basically, project structure is a bunch of
functional structures each of which reports to one central office.
Use a divisional structure when the organization is relatively large, geographically
dispersed, and/or produces wide range of goods/services.
In a projectized organization, team members are often collocated. Most of the
organization's resources are involved in project work, and project managers have
a great deal of independence and authority.
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Software Project Management (CS615)
Projectized organizations often have organizational units called departments, but
these groups either report directly to the project manager or provide support
services to the various projects.
iii.
Matrix Structure
Think of the functional structure. Imagine if you took someone from each of the
major functions in the functional structure (the boxes along the bottom of the
organization chart), e.g., people from sales, engineering, etc., and organized them
into a separate group intended to produce and sell one certain kind of product or
service.
Members of this group stay together until that product is produced or they
continue to sell and service it. This overall structure (made up of a functional
structure that also has groups assigned to products) is a matrix structure.
This structure is useful because it focuses highly skilled people from across the
organization to work on a complex product or service.
It can be difficult, though, because each person essentially reports to two
supervisors: the supervisor of the functional area (e.g., engineering) and the
product manager, as well.
When the organization needs constant coordination of its functional activities,
then lateral relations do not provide sufficient integration. Consider the matrix
structure.
To adopt the matrix structure effectively, the organization should modify many
traditional management practices.
Matrix organizations are a blend of functional and projectized characteristics.
Weak matrices maintain many of the characteristics of a functional organization,
and the project manager role is more that of a coordinator or expediter than that of
a manager.
In similar fashion, strong matrices have many of the characteristics of the
projectized organization--full-time project managers with considerable authority
and full-time project administrative staff.
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Chief
Executive
Functional
Functional
Functional
Manager
Manager
Manager
Staff
Staff
Staff
Staff
Staff
Staff
Staff
Staff
Staff
Project
Coordinatio
Figure 1: Weak Matrix Organization
Chief
Executive
Functional
Functional
Functional
Manager
Manager
Manager
Staff
Staff
Staff
Staff
Staff
Staff
Project
Manager
Staff
Staff
Project
Coordinatio
Figure 2: Balanced Matrix Organization
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Chief
Executive
Functional
Functional
Manager of
Manager
Manager
Project Managers
Project
Staff
Staff
Manager
Project
Staff
Staff
Manager
Staff
Staff
Project
Manager
Project
Coordinatio
Figure 3: Strong Matrix Organization
(Black boxes represent staff engaged in project activites)
iv.
Project Office
There is a range of uses for what constitutes a project office. A project office may
operate on a continuum from providing support functions to project managers in
the form of training, software, templates, etc. to actually being responsible for the
results of the project.
Most modern organizations involve all these structures at various levels. For
example, even a fundamentally functional organization may create a special
project team to handle a critical project.
Such a team may have many of the characteristics of a project in a projectized
organization.
The team may include full-time staff from different functional departments, it
may develop its own set of operating procedures, and it may operate outside the
standard, formalized reporting structure.
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Table of Contents:
  1. Introduction & Fundamentals
  2. Goals of Project management
  3. Project Dimensions, Software Development Lifecycle
  4. Cost Management, Project vs. Program Management, Project Success
  5. Project Management’s nine Knowledge Areas
  6. Team leader, Project Organization, Organizational structure
  7. Project Execution Fundamentals Tracking
  8. Organizational Issues and Project Management
  9. Managing Processes: Project Plan, Managing Quality, Project Execution, Project Initiation
  10. Project Execution: Product Implementation, Project Closedown
  11. Problems in Software Projects, Process- related Problems
  12. Product-related Problems, Technology-related problems
  13. Requirements Management, Requirements analysis
  14. Requirements Elicitation for Software
  15. The Software Requirements Specification
  16. Attributes of Software Design, Key Features of Design
  17. Software Configuration Management Vs Software Maintenance
  18. Quality Assurance Management, Quality Factors
  19. Software Quality Assurance Activities
  20. Software Process, PM Process Groups, Links, PM Phase interactions
  21. Initiating Process: Inputs, Outputs, Tools and Techniques
  22. Planning Process Tasks, Executing Process Tasks, Controlling Process Tasks
  23. Project Planning Objectives, Primary Planning Steps
  24. Tools and Techniques for SDP, Outputs from SDP, SDP Execution
  25. PLANNING: Elements of SDP
  26. Life cycle Models: Spiral Model, Statement of Requirement, Data Item Descriptions
  27. Organizational Systems
  28. ORGANIZATIONAL PLANNING, Organizational Management Tools
  29. Estimation - Concepts
  30. Decomposition Techniques, Estimation – Tools
  31. Estimation – Tools
  32. Work Breakdown Structure
  33. WBS- A Mandatory Management Tool
  34. Characteristics of a High-Quality WBS
  35. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
  36. WBS- Major Steps, WBS Implementation, high level WBS tasks
  37. Schedule: Scheduling Fundamentals
  38. Scheduling Tools: GANTT CHARTS, PERT, CPM
  39. Risk and Change Management: Risk Management Concepts
  40. Risk & Change Management Concepts
  41. Risk Management Process
  42. Quality Concept, Producing quality software, Quality Control
  43. Managing Tasks in Microsoft Project 2000
  44. Commissioning & Migration