1-A functional manager has 100% authority over resources and the team. The project manager’s authority is over the project and not necessarily over the resources. I see where a power struggle could happen between two alpha personalities when trying to work together to accomplish day to day functions and work toward a project goal. This actually has me thinking of our case study used in our course checkpoint where the operations manager didn’t want to work with a team and wanted control over his “empire.” In the case study, you are playing the role of the incoming director, but if you think of the situation as one of the incoming project managers, you probably do not like the constantly changing organizational structure that has been going on with the company. When selecting a project manager it is important to select someone with great leadership skills. You need someone who can work with different personality types, and make them see the importance of the project. Getting the functional manager to buy in on the project is important because the functional manager is a key stakeholder.Comment about that discusion.
2-In closing the type of organization a project is being created in will make a huge difference on how you structure the project team, how much control the project team and the project manager have and how much decision-making power you can do. In each of these situations, there have been successful and failures in project management. In a functional or a weak matrix organization you will run a project probably more in a traditional manner than any other. In a projectized or strong matrix organization, this project will function more like a projectized organization. Comment about that discussion.