Project Organization

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There is no single organizational approach to projects. Each project is organized to accomplish the work effectively and efficiently. Several factors influence the organizational approach to execute a project. The complexity profile of a project, the culture of the parent organization, the preferences of the project manager, the knowledge and skills of the team, and a parent organization with a project management office are examples of factors that influence the project’s organization.

In developing the project organizational structure, the project manager considers the span of control for each manager. The span of control represents the number of people reporting to a manager. For example, the project manager does not want all the engineers on a project reporting to the engineering manager and assigns senior engineers to report to the engineering manager with other engineers reporting to the senior engineers.

The engineering manager can organize the engineering reporting structure so that the various engineering discipline managers would report to him or her. For example, the structural, electrical, and mechanical engineering team leaders would report to the engineer manager. On a larger, more complex project, the engineer manager may establish area team leaders and have the structural, electrical, and mechanical engineers report to an area team leader. If the project is geographically dispersed, with the engineering office staff in different cities working on the project, then structuring the engineering function by area provides better coordination and control (see Figure 3.1).

Figure 3.1 Decreasing Span of Control by Increasing Levels of Reporting 

The organization on the left has seventy-one engineers reporting to the same person. The organization on the right creates two additional positions and reduces the span of control to thirty-seven and thirty-four, respectively.

Most projects have similar functions that are important to successfully managing the project. Included among these are the following:

• Sponsor
• Project manager
• Controls
• Procurement
• Technical management
• Quality
• Administration

Figure 3.2 Typical Project Organization 

On smaller projects, more than one function can be managed by one person. On larger projects, large teams may be needed to accomplish the work within the function.