Achieving Successful PM in a Functional Organization

Lawrence Chinedu Obi is a cards, payments, project management and sales expert with 8+ years experience in the financial sector. He is passionate about excellence, leadership and change.

  Business Case   PMO   Requirements Management   Stakeholder Management   Strategy  

There are many reasons projects fail or do not meet customer requirements in organizations. I will share my experience working in a functional environment.

A functional organization is one that is not projectized but has functional departments like legal, technology, etc. Such organizations do not have a proper project management office.  A projectized environment has a proper PMO. In such organizations, the project manager has the authority to make major decisions concerning projects assigned to him or her to execute. These include selecting the team and resources, as well as vendor selection and negotiations since the PM controls the project budget.

In fact, the PM is in charge of the project from start to finish. He or she ensures all the stakeholders are properly informed on the projects, and that other necessary information is passed and reports rendered. In this kind of organization, it’s always difficult for the project to fail—except where the PM is incompetent and the project lacks the necessary funding to execute it.

But the opposite is the case in a functional organization. Some of the reasons projects fail in functional organizations include…

1. Poor Business Case: Most business cases are poorly written, and most times do not reflect the vision of the organization on a larger scale. …

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