QUESTION 1What are the four steps for assessing knowledge management and why are they essential to fostering a successful project? Your response should be at least 200 words in length.QUESTION 2Descri

MBA 6941, Managing Project Teams 1 Cou rse Learning Outcomes for Unit II Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to: 5. Describe the process of leadership when leading project teams. 5.1 Determine the role of a program manager in a project management office environment. 7. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of various organizational structures. 7.1 Outline the advantages and disadvantages of functional, projectized, and matrixed organizational structures. 8. Assess strategies to manage organizational change. 8.1 Identify the role of knowledge management process in a project. Reading Assignment Chapter 4: Project Governance Chapter 5: Program and Portf olio Management Chapter 6: Organizational Capability Chapter 7: Governance of the Project -Based Organization Unit Lesson Structure and Culture We are going to be looking at how limited project resources are organized into a project team and how the project team is managed and motivated within an organizational structure. By definition, an organization is a unique entity, and each may have its own styles and cultures that affect the availability of resources. There are basically three basic forms of organizational structure that projects can take place in. These structures include the following:  Functional : The organization is grouped by areas of specialization within different functional areas: accounting, marketing, and engineering. The project is often managed from a traditional and functional perspective.  Projectized : Most commonly found in consulting environment, the organization is structured by projects. Project managers run projects and have official authority over the project team. In mos t cases, the project is an independent organizational unit, and the team members are 100% dedicated to the project.  Matrixed : This hybrid organization is a blend of both functional and projectized organization. The three matrix forms include strong matrix (the project manager has more authority), weak matrix (functional manager has more authority), and balanced matrix (power is shared equally between both the project manager and functional manager). UNIT II STUDY GUIDE Project Governance and Team MBA 6941, Managing Project Teams 2 UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title Each of these organizational structures has advantages an d disadvantages. In a functional organizational structure, the advantages include having clearly defined career path and a direct supervisor reporting structure. In addition, the employees are experts in their fields. The disadvantages of such a structure include the following: employees’ jobs are difficult to change because they are experts in their fields, disagreement within the organization can occur due to not having enough resources to go around, each project team believing their project should be top priority, project manager has little to no authority over the project, and the project manager is usually just part -time. In a projectized organizational structure, the advantages include a dedicated project focus, project loyalty, and efficient project organization and communication. The disadvantages of this structure include the following: once the project is gone, a person’s job could be gone; resources are siloed instead of shared; and job functions and facilities may be duplicated across the organiz ation. In a matrixed organizational structure, the advantages include the following: visible objectives, increased support from functional managers, project manager maintains more control over the project, job roles are more flexible jobs remain intact even when the project is complete, and project team members receive multiple inputs on their performance during the project. The disadvantages of this structure include the following: project team members have more than just one boss to answer to, projects become more complex, more policies and procedures are required, and different objectives and priorities may exist. It is important to note that irrespective of the organizational structure, the project organization by definition is temporary. Therefore, as projects are completed, project team members return to their respective functional homes or to other projects within the organization or outside the organization. It is equally important to note that within the matrix structure, and sometimes within the functional organizational structure, project team members may not be assigned to the project 100% of the time. Project Management Structures An effective project management system must ensure that the strategic objectives of the organization are met while also meeting the project objectives. As a project manager, it is important to understand your organizational objectives and ensure that that your project objectives do not counter but rather, align and support the overall organizational goals. Becaus e of the project/organization relationship, the role of authority and resource allocation between the two groups is clearly defined. There are two major constraints from an organizational perceptive that projects are afflicted with. First, most organizati ons are operational by function, and their structures are designed for ongoing day -to-day operations with a continuous process. Projects, on the other hand, are unique as they are one -time, temporary efforts. The implication is that sometimes a temporary p roject is operated in an organization with a continuous process. This relationship may lead to frustration among the project team and functional team. For example, it may be frustrating to gain the attention of computer hardware engineers working on a new hardware development project team when there is a need in the factory requiring the team’s attention in order to achieve output. Second, projects are multidisciplinary, requiring coordinated effort across diverse skills and experiences from different fun ctional departments within the organization, such as legal, marketing, engineering, and finance. Compare that to organizations that are departmentalized and function focused with a functional manager in charge of each department. In simple terms, projects cut horizontally across organizations that are vertically - organized, so it can sometimes be difficult to determine who is really in charge and who has the authority at any given time. Projects within the Functional Organization In some cases, projects can be performed within an existing functional department structure in an organization. However, if the project requires multiple skills or specialties to complete the project work, management would be required to assign some elemen ts of the project work to the appropriate functional departments within that specialty. Projects within the functional organization are often done when the nature of the project has a single functional focus. For example, a project to develop a new marketi ng material for an existing product may be performed within the marketing department. If you are a project manager working in a functional organization, be sure that you understand the organizational hierarchy structure and that you operate within approved structural boundaries. MBA 6941, Managing Project Teams 3 UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title Projectized Organizational Structure The projectized organization is one that does all its work through a project. Some advantages of this type of organization include that the project manager is fully in control of the project sc ope, cost, and time. In addition, the project manager does share power over the project with a functional or administrative manager.

The project manager ensures that the project outcomes meet an approved quality standard and the expectations of the project customers. The project resources are not shared, which means that resources are fully dedicated to the project. The importance of this structure is that it allows a dedicated focus by all the team to achieve the project objectives and is mostly used in la rge and complex projects. Projects within a Matrixed Arrangement The matrixed organizational structure combines the good qualities and advantages of both the functional and projectized organizations, which minimizes their collective disadvantages. The following list includes weak matrix, balanced matrix, and strong matrix structures:  Weak matrix: In this structure, the functional manager controls all the project resources, and the project manager simply takes directives from the functional manager. In the corporate world, project managers working this structure are referred to as project coordinators.  Balanced matrix: In this type of structure, both the functional and project managers have equal power. They share resources through negotiations and have to collaborate to get the project objectives achieved.  Strong matrix: Unlike the weak matrix, in this structure, the project manager has power over the project resources with limited interference by the functional manager. Like the projectized matrix, the project manager controls the resources of scope, time, and cost and ensures that customers’ needs are met. The prima ry anchor between the organizational structure and project is the governance that binds them together. The governance of a project is the set of relationships that governs how the project sponsor, the project manager, and other key stakeholders work within the project. The governance provides the guiding structure that enables these stakeholders to achieve the project objectives. Let’s look at some of the roles of the stakeholders. The project sponsor’s role includes the following:  acts as a protector of the project from external forces,  responsible for providing the project funding,  acts as the primary approval of the charter and project management plan,  responsible for setting some of the project priorities,  approves the selection of the project manager and his or her authority level,  responsible for approving or rejecting change requests, and  ultimately responsible for the formal acceptance of the project deliverables (Perrin, 2013). The functional manager’s role includes the following:  respons ible for providing the project resources and capabilities,  provides advice and direction and engages in the initiating phase of the project,  responsible for managing all project activities within their operational domain, and  provides annual assessments or inputs to the assessments of the project team (Perrin, 2013). The project manager’s role includes the following:  helps in the development of the project charter in some cases;  responsible for communicating with the project stakeholders;  responsible for developing all the management plans such as the scope, time, budget, quality, communication, human resources, risk, procurement and other related project documents; MBA 6941, Managing Project Teams 4 UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title  responsible for actively identifying potential project problems and seeking solutions;  res ponsible for managing team conflicts and leading the team to achieve project works; and  responsible for the project’s success or failure (Perrin, 2013). The portfolio manager’s role includes the following:  provides portfolio executive governance ,  respons ible for making sure that the project achieves its strategic goals,  manages senior executives’ engagement for project support, and  responsible for the return on investment for the project (Perrin, 2013). The program manager’s role includes the following:  provides guidance and support to project managers on multiple projects, and  provides an oversight capacity over the entire project to ensure compliance to standards (Perrin, 2013). The project team’s role includes the following:  interprets and translate s requirements into technical specifications,  helps with the WBS decomposition of scope into work packages,  helps in the identification of work package dependencies  provides time and cost estimates and helps in risk identification for the project manager, and  helps in resolving internal project conflicts (Perrin, 2013). There are 11 principles of project management. These include the following:  all the project stakeholders (board of directors) share overall responsibility,  project portfolio must align wi th organizational strategic objectives,  the business case must be measurable,  governance roles and responsibilities must be defined,  project stakeholders must be engaged,  the governance arrangement must be applicable throughout the project lifecycle,  the project plan must have control and monitoring mechanisms,  clear reporting and problem escalation measures must be in place,  audit process must be included,  key stakeholders must be empowered, and  there must be an open culture (Turner, 2014). Programs vers us Portfolios A program is a group of similar or related projects managed in a coordinated way to capitalize benefits and control what is not achievable by managing those projects individually. Program management is the centralized and coordinated managem ent of a program to obtain the strategic objectives and benefits sought through the inception of the program. For a group of projects to be classified as a program, there must be some value added in managing them together as a program. A project may or may not be part of a program, but a program will always have projects. There are many advantages to using program management to manage related projects, although it can be challenging to pull off well. Issues like governance and risk can be managed more succe ssfully if a single umbrella team is coordinating efforts since the program team has an overall view of processes and progress that individual project leaders lack. A portfolio can generally be described as a group of projects or programs and other works created to achieve a specific strategic business goal. The programs may not be related, other than the fact that they are helping to achieve the common strategic goal. Portfolio management encompasses identifying, prioritizing, authorizing, managing, and controlling the collection of projects, programs, other work, and sometimes other portfolios to achieve strategic business objectives. For example, a construction business has several business units, such as retail and single and multifamily residential, a nd collectively all the programs, projects, and work within all these business units make up the portfolio for the construction business. MBA 6941, Managing Project Teams 5 UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title References Perrin, R. (2013). PMP exam prep boot camp. Retrieved from http://edwel.com/materials/PMP%20Exam%20Prep% 20Manual%20Online%20Free%205_0_1.pdf Turner, J. R. (2014). The handbook of project -based management: Leading strategic change in organizations (4th ed.). New York: McGraw -Hill. Suggested Reading In order to access the resource below, you must first log into the myCSU Student Portal and access the Academic Search Complete database within the CSU Online Library. This article gives you an insight to project governance and how project governance is h elpin g organizations achieve success: Ghosh, S., Amaya, L., & Skibniewski, M. J. (2012). Identifying areas of knowledge governance for successful projects. Journal Of Civil Engineering & Management , 18 (4), 495 -504. doi:10.3846/13923730.2012.700642