This is quite difficult because the question is very open, think about roles and responsibilities of the PM and functional managers, responsibility for time, cost and technical quality, processes for assigning resources. It is not asking for pro and cons?
Paul Naybour
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Ben
It was a much harder question than you will see in the exam. Your answer is very good. A few of the points are drifting into benefits. e.g In a matrix organization skills are utilized across the different projects and therefore staff are gaining far more experience than they would otherwise be in a project or functional organization. This eliminates the need for resourcing outside of the business as much, as you have the in-house capacity to house staff in each of the projects in the specific roles needed.
I would do it maybe something like this
Matrix organisation draw staff from multiple functions to deliver projects. This means that a team can in theory be assembled quickly to meet the need of a project, and can grow and shrink as the project progress. The challenge in this situation is managing with the resources complexity of managing multiple project and the conflicting requirements for resources. To be successful a organisation needs a way of communicating and prioritising these resource requirements.
but overall I think what you have done is fine.
The operation or a matrix organisation can be described as a hybrid of the project and and organisation structure. The matrix operation allows for resources to be allocated to different projects via a resource pool. This allows specialist skills to be drawn upon when required within the project such as business analyst risk managers.
This organisational structure provides a technical home for specialist skills with the functional manager managing pay and HR elements as well as skills development, the project manager maintains the distribution and management of work and quality criteria attached to it. In theory resources can be allocated quickly and then reduced once the need has been met meaning peaks and troughs can be managed.
Work management within the structure will need to be managed effectively as it is difficult to gauge workloads form this structure due to the hierarchy with line management lines sometimes becoming blurred. Communication within these structures are paramount between managers and those performing he work.
Conflict between project needs and the functional elements of the organisation need to be carefully managed in particular when demands of work come up ( this can be managed by a resources plan with associated product breakdown structure.) Consistency can be provided across the piece around process and procedures.
This is a flexible structure which offers both resources to project and function roles providing benefits to both sides. This means that knowledge can be retained and developed and reused across other projects.
Brett an very good answer, I have nothing to add or remove, well done.
A shame Bretts answer removed as would have been very useful?
Gordon not me, be must have done it…..