Category: multiple projects

How to Do Many Projects with Matrix Management (Part 2)

October 14, 2008 by JurgenAppelo

In How to Do Many Projects (Part 1) I explained that it is good to have multi-functional teams, where each team includes a project manager. Here is part 2, which is about the merits of matrix management...

Functional Managers
As in every other organization, in our company each employee has a (functional) manager. I prefer management to be arranged along functional lines. Therefore, a project manager has a manager who knows a lot about project management. A front-end developer has a manager who is herself fluent in CSS and HTML. And our software developers have development managers who are proficient at building code, delivering solutions and making nerdy jokes that no ordinary person understands.

I believe it is imperative that managers understand the work their employees do. There's little reason for software developers to work with a manager who cannot distinguish a bit from a byte. (I have blogged earlier about how to select a fine technical manager.) Similarly, project managers should be led by someone who understands agile principles, Scrum practices, and how to turn Notepad into a planning tool.

Important: a manager does not have to be better than the sum of his subordinates. It is only natural for his senior employees to exceed the manager's knowledge and expertise at some point, because management requires other (soft) skills, some of which the seniors might be lacking. However, the manager should be good enough to earn trust and respect, and to be able to coach and lead.

How to Do Many Projects with Few People (Part 1)

October 7, 2008 by JurgenAppelo

Given the problem (most managers call it a 'challenge') of running many dozens of projects concurrently, with just a small number of people, I've been asked a few times how we organize projects and resources in our company. Well, there's a lot to tell about this subject, and my attention span (as a manager) is rather short. So I'll spread that information over several posts.

Many of our customers have simple, small requests: requirements that take just a couple of days or weeks to fulfill. This means that the organizational complexity (some employees call it 'chaos') is vastly different from other companies, where they have teams of many employees working on just one project, often for many months at a time. But I am sure that lots of people face similar problems (or challenges if you prefer) as we do, working on numerous small projects. So let me tell you what we did...