Undocumented Features

PM-Fu: Organizational Planning when using Matrix-based Project Management

August 23, 2007 – 12:00 pm

A very popular method of project management in organizations today is Matrix-based project management.  In matrix-based project management, the project manager is in charge of the project, but the PM does not actually have a full-time staff; rather, all employees report to their department heads.  When the PM needs a resource from the infrastructure team to install a server, for example, the PM contacts the Infrastructure Manager and requests a resource.  Good PMs plan ahead and request these resources in advance according to their schedule.

This sounds like a good idea.  In this scenario, you do not have resources dedicated specifically to a project; they work as the work comes in on either their regular job or on specific project work from the project currently with the highest priority.

A few things can and often do go wrong with this, however:

1) Your staffing planners fail to plan
Many companies run very lean staffing nowadays.  That means you only get to hire new staff when you can prove without a shadow of a doubt that you have a need for them.  As a department manager, you will usually prove this through showing 8 hours a day (or more) of work waiting for the new employee, day in and day out, and that the existing staff does not have time to do this work.

What goes wrong with that?  Contemplate for a moment… if all staff is accounted for, full-time, based on current plans, where’s room for new project work in that department?  The people in your organization responsible for planning manpower on a department by department basis MUST be aware of future project commitments company-wide.  They must also allow sufficient slack that when one project gets off schedule, it does not derail your entire organization.  If you run too lean, and your #1 priority project gets off track, every other project in the company that needs the resources you are tying up to get your #1 priority back on track just went off track too.  This will usually ripple through the company as everything in the critical path on ALL of these projects goes off-schedule, which in turn knocks more projects off track… you get the idea.  In order to plan resources well for your projects, you have to think company-wide, and you have to have slack- both in your project timelines and in your staff.  This is, of course, a fine line- sufficient slack makes you agile.  Too much slack gives you lazy staff.

2)  Leadership does not keep focus
Stop me if you’ve heard this scenario before… an executive- the CIO, CEO, etc, is having one-on-one meetings with top staff.  In each meeting, the executive wants to impart how important they feel that person’s work is and make that person feel like a valued member of the organization.  By the time the meetings are over, everyone has come out of their respective one-on-one meetings having been told that the project they are working on is vital to the company and is that executive’s number one priority.

The next thing you know, these project leaders are quoting said executive to every manager related to their projects in the company, saying “my project comes first.  It’s the <fill-in-the-blank-exec>’s top priority!”  What’s worse, who’s going to tell anyone that the exec is wrong?  Levelling and resource planning quickly goes out the window as company politics run amok.  A well-meaning gesture is taken out of context and gets quite out of hand.

These are just two examples of things that can go wrong.  For matrix-based project management to work, there must be an active, strong Project Management Office.  There must be centralized resource planning, and the company’s executives must be tied into and understand the company’s major initiatives.  Companies cannot half-commit to project management.

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