Organizational Project Management Structure in a Real Estate Developing Company

Project management structure is a new issue in Vietnam. There are more and more real estate development companies in Vietnam in which many of them process great potential for the project management team. But the concept of project management structure is one thing that not all companies are aware off. In fact, there are still confusions in choosing the model for organizational project management structure such as:

1. Unclear tasks

2. Communication, teamwork, leadership…

3. Objectives not properly defined or agreed

4. Insufficient planning and coordination of resources

Nguyen Duc Trong made a case study to identify and find out the ideal project management structure for a developing company. In order to accomplish this, the objectives of his research were to:

1. study the literature of Organization Project Management Structure in construction project

2. analyze a Case Study in application of Organization Project Management Structure in Viet Nam

Conclusion

Organizational structure can get in the way of, or help support, the overall success of projects. To a certain extent, we can change the organizational structure. In fact, we can change the organization chart frequently, and some companies do just like that. Culture, on the other hand, cannot easily change. It can take years for a large organization to develop a culture of excellence (although it doesn't take nearly as long to fall back into mediocrity).

Some organizational structures can definitely impair the ability to deliver projects. First are those organizations whose project teams are doing support work. If the project organization does support as well, it usually means that support issues will pop up and take the focus away from the project. A lot of multitasking and thrashing takes place as we move from support work to project work to support work. It is usually very difficult to prepare good estimates and meet the scheduling commitments. We may be forced into this structure if our staff is small. Sometimes, we have 15 people who work on support, projects, and enhancements. However, we do not have enough people to specialize in either support or project work. This makes it difficult to meet all of our project commitments. Instead, we have to do a good job of managing expectations.

The organizational structure may also impede the ability to share resources. For instance, if our project team needs a resource with a specific expertise, we may not be able to easily share that person with another functional area. Some of this is also related to our culture. We have to consider whether a different organizational structure would help. If it would, we may have an organization problem. If it wouldn't help, our culture is probably not supportive of resource sharing.

The organizational structure can also help or hinder the success rate. The structure can determine how well we focus on projects and how easy it is to share resources between organizations.

Recommendation

1. Consider the system of Project Management structure. Develop individual assessment form for functional manager, project manager. By involving functional management in project initiation activities-recognizing that functional managers often have the best insight into the skills and limitations of staff members-we made the process of assigning resources to roles more collaboratively. We also instituted a formal requisition process for internal resources. Project managers were added to the performance development process training classes and required to provide periodic performance-related information to functional managers. At the same time, functional managers now shared individual goals and objectives with project managers, seeking to align project assignments with objectives.

2. Build up the enterprise culture and create the transparent competition among departments. Have good authority system and empowerment so that all the department leaders can have the conditions to give out the right decisions.

3. Have clear annual plan and transfer this plan to every department, and every individual. Check, monitor and access this plan monthly or quarterly to create fair in bonus sharing.

4. Re-define Roles and Responsibilities: establish a policy statement and matrix document that clearly identified the project manager and functional manager roles and responsibilities.

5. Establish a Communications Plan: developed a comprehensive program communications plan identifying who reports what to whom, and when. Acknowledge the information needs of the functional management team by including them in the communications plan. Project websites could be established to facilitate communications.

Abstract

A project organization is a structure that facilitates the coordination and implementation of project activities. Its main reason is to create an environment that fosters interactions among the team members with a minimum amount of disruptions, overlaps and conflict. One of the important decisions of project management is the form of organizational structure that will be used for the project. Each project has its unique characteristics and the design of an organizational structure should consider the organizational environment, the project characteristics in which it will operate, and the level of authority the project manager is given. A project structure can take on various forms with each form having its own advantages and disadvantages. One of the main objectives of the structure is to reduce uncertainty and confusion that typically occurs at the project initiation phase. The structure defines the relationships among members of the project management and the relationships with the external environment. The structure defines the authority by means of a graphical illustration called an organization chart.