Chapter 4

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
PROJECT ORGANIZATION
The type of Project organization is determined by
the authority that is given to the persons
responsible for the project, the project
organization may take one of the following three
forms;
• Line and staff organization
• Divisional Organization
• Matrix Organization
• Line and Staff organization:
• In this form of organization, a person is
appointed with the primary responsibility of
coordination the work of the people in the
functional departments; such a person
referred to commonly as the project
coordinator, acts essentially in a staff position
to facilitate the coordination of line
management in functional departments.
• The project coordinator does not have authority and
direct responsibility of the line management.
• He serves as a focal point for receiving project related
information and seeks to promote the cause of the
project by rendering advice, sharing information and
providing assistance.
• He may gently coax line executives to strive for the
fulfillment of project goals. Deprived to exert leadership
and feel unsure of his role.
• His influence would depend on his professional
competence, closeness to top management, and
persuasive abilities.
• Clearly this is a week form of organization, which may be
employed mostly for small projects. It is certainly not
suitable for large projects
• Divisional Organization:
• a separate division is set up to implement the
project, headed by the Project Manager.
• This division has its complement of personnel
over whom the project manager has full line
authority. In effect, this form of organization
implies the creation of a separate goal oriented
decision of the company with its own functional
departments.
• While the project manager still has the problem
of coordinating the inputs of the organizations
involved in the project, he has total formal control
over the division heads.
Divisional Organization….
• Advantages :
• A very strong form of project organization.
• It facilitate the process of planning and control
• It brings better integration of effects and strengths the
commitment of project related personal to the objective of
the project.
• It considerably improves the perfect of fulfilling the time and
budget targets.
• Limitations:
• It may entail on inefficient use of resources of the firm.
• It may result in an unnecessary duplication of specialist in the
company.
• It may be difficult to achieve higher degree of specialization
• Matrix Organization:
• The matrix form of organization, the third form of project
organization, seeks to achieve the twin objectives of efficient use of
resources and effective realization of project objectives, at the cost of
greater organizational complexity of course.
• In a matrix organization, the personnel working on the project have a
responsibility to their functional superior as well to the project
manager. This means that the authority is shared between the
project manager and the functional managers.
• The authority and influence of the project manager are across the
traditional vertical line of command while the personnel maintain the
departmental affiliation and are responsible to their functional
superiors; they are responsible to the project manager as well.
Limitations:
• There is dual subordinations
• Responsibility and authority are not commensurate
• The hierarchical principle is ignored.
 PROJECT PLANNING:
• Project involving few activities, resources, constraints and inter
relationship can be visualized by the human mind and planned
informally. However, when a project crosses a certain threshold
level of size and complexity, informal planning has to be
substituted by formal planning, without effective planning there
may be chaos.
Functions of Project Planning:
• Planning, a vital aspect of management serves several important
functions.
– It provides a basis for organizing work on the project and allocating
responsibilities to individuals.
– It is a means of communication and coordination between all those
involved in the project.
– It forces people to look ahead.
– It instills a sense of agency and time consciousness.
– It establishes the basis for monitoring and control.
 Areas of Project Planning:
• Comprehensive project planning covers the following;
a) Planning the Project work: the activities relating to the
project must be spell out in detail, they should be
properly scheduled and sequenced.
b) Planning the manpower and organization: the
manpower required for the project must be estimated
and the responsibility for carrying out the project work
must be allocated.
c) Planning the money: the expenditure of money in a time
phased manner must be budgeted.
d) Planning the information system: the information
required for monitoring the project must be performed.
 Project Work -break down structure:
• The work breakdown structure,, represents a systematic
and logical breakdown of the project into its component
parts. It is constructed by dividing the project into its major
parts, with each of these being further divided into sub
parts.
• This is continued till a breakdown is done in terms of
manageable units of work for which responsibility can be
defined, thus the work breakdown structure helps in;
 Effective planning: by dividing the work into manageable
elements, which can be planned, budgeted and controlled.
 Assignment of responsibility for work element to project
personnel and outside agencies.
 Development of control and information system.
 Project Control:
• Project control involves a regular comparison of performance against targets, a
search for the causes of deviation, and a commitment to check adverse
variances. It serves two functions.
• (i) Regular monitoring of performance and (ii) it motivates project personnel to
achieve project objectives.
Reasons for ineffective control:
• control of projects in practice tends to be in effective. There are three reasons
for poor control of projects.
 (i) Characteristics of the project: Most of the projects are large, complex
 (ii) People Problem: naturally most of the operational mangers, used to the
study rhythm of normal operations and routine work. The lack of experience,
training, competence and inclination to control projects.
 (iii) Poor control and information system: One of the factors, which inhibit
effective control, is the poor quality of control and information system. Some of
the weakness observed in the control and the information system are;
a) Delay in reporting performance
b) Inappropriate level of details
c) Unreliable information.