The Internal Project Culture
The culture which develops within a project is often a reflection of the leadership
style and organizational structure which is adopted for the project. This can
vary considerably according to the size and nature of the project, but in any
case has been dealt with extensively in the project management literature, and
will not be repeated here.
However, to the extent that the melting pot of participation and coordination
represents the project's internal cultural environment, it is worth considering
because it needs to be managed,. A typical situation is shown in Figure
2, in which the project group to be managed will eventually consist of consultants,
contractors and specialists, as well as the owner's staff of advisors and the
project control team itself.
Figure 2: Project Management in the Corporate Environment
From this it can be seen that each group or person involved in the project
has two allegiances or "bosses". That is to say, project responsibilities
ultimately to the project manager, and "professional" responsibilities
to his or her "home" department or firm. This dual reporting relationship
is often referred to as a "matrix" structure and accounts for much
of the complexity and difficulties of managing a project, particularly a large
one.
Similarly, the project manager will also have a dual responsibility. On the
one hand under the "project mandate", he or she will be responsible
for the project to the project's "Executive" or "Sponsor",
i.e. the person that has the authority to approve further project funding. On
the other hand, the project manager will be responsible for personal and professional
performance to his or her own home department or company.
Of course, the project mandate should be to direct all operational activities
including planning, design, procurement, construction and commissioning. Typically,
this will include such direct project support activities as estimating, forecasting,
scheduling, procurement, project accounting, and progress reports.
In addition, on a larger project, the project manager may require other more
specialized services of an indirect nature. These may include financial accounting,
legal, payroll, personnel, property acquisition, systems development, government
and public relations, and so on. However, because they do not normally affect
project control decisions directly, these activities are often carried out by
independent departments or companies, which are not under the project manager's
direct supervision.
A major duty of the project manager will be to report on a regular basis to
the Executive, whose interest will tend to focus on expenditure to date, forecast
final cost, and the scheduled commencement of the facility. For this he must
render a succinct digest of the required information on progress, forecast, resource
requirements, target dates and actions required. If he is to get the quality
of information and service that he needs, then he must maintain good relations
and communication. That is to say, he must maintain a favorable and positive
environment involving all parties serving the project.
As many practicing project managers will attest, this is frequently more easily
said than done. In no small part, this is due to the nature of a project in the
context of its time environment, and the variation in level-of-effort as described
earlier.
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Dimensions
of the Project Environment
