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How organisational culture and structure affect project management

Tags:
Product Management,
Organisational Culture

Tom Mochal Tech Republic

Published: 02 Jul 2003 15:17 BST

The differences in project management success rates may be a result of the fact that some organisations do a better job of training their project managers. So they may be more skilled and knowledgeable in the project management discipline. But the way your organisation deals with training is just one aspect of your overall organisational culture. A number of big-picture factors influence your ability to deliver projects successfully. Let's look at two of them: culture and structure.

Culture has a huge effect on your success rate
Your organisation's culture has a lot to do with the success rate of your projects. Keep in mind that I'm talking about projects all throughout your organisation, not just about one particular project. The term culture generally means "how we do things around here." Imagine that someone asks you how successfully your organisation delivers projects. If you say: "We're pretty poor at delivering projects," you're voicing a perception of one aspect of your culture. Culture comes into play on projects in a number of areas.

Process orientation
Many organisations have good processes in place and people generally follow them. This is perhaps the biggest single factor in overall project success. If your organisation follows a good, scalable project management process, you're more likely to be consistently successful on your projects. The entire project team generally knows how to create and follow a work plan, and can use standard processes to effectively handle risk, scope change, and issues.

Governance
Many organisations have processes in place, but no one follows them. This highlights a problem with management governance. In simplistic terms, governance is the management function that has to do with making sure people do what they're supposed to do. Typically, if your management structure is engaged and interested in projects, and if managers make sure that your project management process is followed, you'll be more successful. If every project manager is on his or her own and management support is haphazard, however, you'll tend to fail.

Training
Some organisations do a poor job of training project managers. Typically, these organisations do a poor job of training in general. If project managers don't have the right skills (other than from the school of hard knocks), you are unlikely to be successful.

Roles and responsibilities
In successful organisations, people typically know the role they play on projects and what is expected of them. This includes active sponsors, interested clients, and engaged management stakeholders. The sponsor, for instance, needs to perform a quality assurance role and be the project champion in his or her organisation. If your organisation starts projects and leaves the project manager in a leadership vacuum, you're not going to be consistently successful.

Culture plays perhaps the biggest role in whether your organisation is successful in executing projects. If your organisation has difficulty completing projects successfully, you can't blame the project managers. They're only toiling within a culture that's not supportive of their efforts. Managers, including the head of the organisation, need to step up and evaluate the project culture. Until the culture changes, project managers will consistently struggle to be successful.

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