Chapter 2 The project Environment

All projects have a beginning and an end, and produce a unique tangible or intangible product. But ongoing operations have the opposite characteristics of projects. Because of different characteristics from ongoing operations there are some challenges the project managers face.
First, every project has different personnel needs because of the temporary nature of projects.
Second, it is hard to make accurate budget because projects have never been built before.
Third, projects might have to shut down when the budget is underfunded during one budge year.
Fourth, it is not clear who has authority for many decisions when projects cross organizational boundaries.
Fifth, by the time quarterly accounting reports show a project over budget, it may be out of control as to be beyond recovery.
Sixth, communication breakdowns occur because communication channels tend to follow a firm’s operational structure.
One of the most important things as project manager is to balance variables to create the optimal cost-schedule-quality equilibrium.
How to do that? Set realistic expectations about the cost-schedule-quality equilibrium and if the equilibrium changes, make sure everybody knows and accepts the new equilibrium, and deliver the promised product, on time, within budget.
There are different types of companies that favor ongoing operations on the one end and projects on the other, for example, Function-driven firms, Matrix organizations, and Project-oriented organization/Program. In function-driven firms, project managers have no functional authority and must work through the functional managers to assign, monitor, and coordinate work. In Matrix organizations, this structure gives authority to both project managers and functional managers. In project-oriented organization, functional departments exist within the project. Program is another style of project-oriented organization. I think knowing the types of companies is important to project managers.

My capstone project does not need to recruit people and to worry about budget because the scale is small. However, I did have some problem in the beginning of my capstone project because DLI is the function-driven organization, all authority lies on school dean and project managers has almost no authority. For example, I had a problem with my laptop computer and asked if school can support a new computer for my capstone project. But, unfortunately, I got a refusal message from the school dean saying that it is a voluntary work, so they cannot support. Certainly, I did not have any authority on getting a budget for my project.