A recent question from a reader prompted me to think about Project Management structures.  The project management landscape is characterized by two different types of structures, the Project based and Functional based structure.  Today, most project structures fall somewhere in between the two types of structures in a sort of “hybrid” form.  These hybrid structural forms are generally referred to as a Matrix (no, not the popular futuristic movie trilogy) or more correctly a Matrix Management structure.   

In Project Management’s early, “formative” years, project team members were almost always assigned to a project where the Project Manager also was the Resource Manager and had responsibility not only for the conduct of the project activities but also for the hiring/firing, personnel evaluations, etc. of the project team members.  This type of structure is referred to as a “strong” or project matrix and places a large measure of power and control with the PM.  In this construct, the project manager is primarily responsible for both the conduct of the project and the care and management of the project team members who are implementing the project.  Usually, but not always, the project team members are dedicated to this single project for the duration of the project.  If a functional structure coexists with the project structure, functional managers may provide technical or specialty expertise from their area and assign resources with special skills to the project on an as-needed basis.  An example of this specialized functional expertise might be a Quality Assurance (QA) group that provides QA across an entire organizational enterprise or an entire portfolio of projects and temporarily assigns resources to work on specific short term activities.  This type of structure is sometimes very centralized and characterized by a very rigid hierarchical structure.

As technology adoption changed the business environment, organizations found that they needed to adapt to this new environment.  Part of this adaptation included restructuring the project team structures to allow for more specialization in the workplace.  These changes and adaptations resulted in a more functional or “weak” project matrix.  In this structure, a project manager, who is sometimes called a “project administrator”, has very limited (if any) authority over the resources on the project team and is mainly assigned to oversee the cross-functional aspects of the project.  Although the Project Manager has the responsibility for successful project completion, many times the PM does not have the authority necessary to ensure success.  In this type of matrix structure, functional managers maintain control over their own resources and the project areas that require the specialized technical skills and expertise of their functional area.  Project assignments in this structure are normally limited to specific tasks of well defined duration.  Although this functional matrix structure has its’ benefits, both it and the strong matrix tend to be in extreme opposition.    

As a result of worldwide competition, resource pressures and rapid changes in customer segments, technology and other industry dynamics, many industries and organizations have continued to adapt to the changing environment.  Many entities have adopted a “Project Based”traditional” hierarchical structures that characterize both the strong and weak matrices.  They have merged the weak and strong matrices into a “balanced” matrix.  In this balanced matrix structure, a project manager is assigned to oversee the project but “power” or authority is shared equally between the project manager and the organization’s functional managers.  In this structure the project manager can concentrate on managing the project while a Functional Manager or Resource Manager can concentrate on managing the resources and the functional areas that they have the expertise in. business approach to their activities and engagements rather then continuing to use the more “

Is it possible to authorize/approve Resource Allocation/Assignment within Rational PM?  An example scenario would be:

 1. A Project Manager (PM) assigns a resource to a task on their project

2. A Resource Manager (RM) authorizes the resource allocation that the Project manager has made. 

This could be accomplished in several ways, some examples include:

1. The PM to assigns a Resource Profile to a task for the effort and duration that is required. The Resource Profile is essentially a “placeholder” for a to-be-identified resource.  The PM then sends a “Notify” to the Resource Manager indicating that the Resource Profile needs to be replaced with an actual resource. The Resource Manager then goes into the Staffing view and replaces the Resource Profile with an actual resource.

2. Another way to respond to this scenario involves using a Work Flow. The PM could assign a Resource and then start a Resource Assignment Workflow (this workflow would need to be built based upon the resource assignment process and procedures of the particular organization). As part of the workflow, the Resource Manager could indicate approval of a resource assignment within the workflow.  If the workflow is set-up for automatic actions and triggers, the Resource Manager approval in the workflow would trigger the appropriate task to move from Proposed to Planned so that the resource would automatically be committed to the assigned task based on the workflow. 

3. One last thought on assignment, approval can be through the use of the Proposed & Planned concept supported by Rational Portfolio Manager.  The PM assigns a resource in the proposed mode.  When the Resource Manager implements the “Copy proposed to plan” function, the RM is committing resources thus "approving" the PM's assignment.

These three examples are just some of the ways that using the functions and capabilities of an integrated Project and Portfolio Management application such as IBM’s Rational Portfolio Manager can assist in more efficiently and effectively implementing an Organization’s Project Management Policies and Procedures in order to achieve project success.