, Project Organization Structure and
Integration.
• Organizations are systems of human and physical elements created to achieve goals.
• As with all of systems, they are partly described by their structure; the form of relationships that bond
their elements.
• In all organizations two kinds of structures coexist.
• One is the formal structure, the published one that describes normative superior–subordinate
relationships, chains of command, and subdivisions and grouping of elements.
• The other is the informal structure, the unpublished one that describes relationships that evolve
through the interactions of people.
• Whereas the formal organization prescribes how people are supposed to relate, the informal
organization is how they actually do relate.
• This chapter deals primarily with the formal organization structure of projects and project
organizations are structured, depending on project goals and available resources.
• The chapter also deals with project integration, which is the way that individual functional groups,
subunits, project phases, and work tasks are interlinked and coordinated to achieve project goals.
• The discussion covers various means of project integration and the special case of integration within
large-scale development projects.
• Important to note is that occasionally projects are conducted without any formal project organization,
per se.
• In other words, a manager and people are tasked with working on a project, but no project group or
organization is explicitly recognized.
• Lack of an identified project organization makes everything more difficult to manage because of
uncertainty over reporting relationships and who, exactly, is on the project.
• Also noteworthy, and as will be discussed in the chapter, is that most project organizations are
“superimposed” on the existing organizational structure; although this makes them better suited to
accomplish project goals, people in the formal organization sometimes view the project organization
as disruptive to business-as-usual
Integration.
• Organizations are systems of human and physical elements created to achieve goals.
• As with all of systems, they are partly described by their structure; the form of relationships that bond
their elements.
• In all organizations two kinds of structures coexist.
• One is the formal structure, the published one that describes normative superior–subordinate
relationships, chains of command, and subdivisions and grouping of elements.
• The other is the informal structure, the unpublished one that describes relationships that evolve
through the interactions of people.
• Whereas the formal organization prescribes how people are supposed to relate, the informal
organization is how they actually do relate.
• This chapter deals primarily with the formal organization structure of projects and project
organizations are structured, depending on project goals and available resources.
• The chapter also deals with project integration, which is the way that individual functional groups,
subunits, project phases, and work tasks are interlinked and coordinated to achieve project goals.
• The discussion covers various means of project integration and the special case of integration within
large-scale development projects.
• Important to note is that occasionally projects are conducted without any formal project organization,
per se.
• In other words, a manager and people are tasked with working on a project, but no project group or
organization is explicitly recognized.
• Lack of an identified project organization makes everything more difficult to manage because of
uncertainty over reporting relationships and who, exactly, is on the project.
• Also noteworthy, and as will be discussed in the chapter, is that most project organizations are
“superimposed” on the existing organizational structure; although this makes them better suited to
accomplish project goals, people in the formal organization sometimes view the project organization
as disruptive to business-as-usual
