Meeting of the Minds Between Project and Functional Managers

Filed in archive Application Development on October 3, 2005

I've worked on a number of different projects at companies during my career. In almost all cases those organizations used some form of matix management. One thing I've found when having a project manager and a functional manager work together is that sometimes wires get crossed. For me this tended to be a universally accept fact for software developers and not something that bothered them very much until the end of a project. Both managers think the other is taking care of day-to-day details of developers' workload when in fact neither is really watching. This lack of direction can lead to a lack of urgency and losing sight of deadlines that are looming just over the horizon.

My simple suggestion, to project mangers and functional managers alike, is to be on the same page. Micromanagement is not the answer to getting more out of people. However, some leadership and for that matter -direction- on a project can go a long way. It could help make people feel that what they are doing is important and that the dates people are suppose to hit should not only be worried about three weeks before they are going to come due.

If a functional manager wants to maintain day-to-day supervision over his subordinates then that manager should simply make the project manager aware of this desire. However, if that is not the case and the project manger is going to direct a developer's workload the opposite is true. Even though a project manager does not have the leverage of a developer reporting directly to them they still have leverage on a project. Getting simple updates on a timely basis based on the units of work in a project plan can go a long way. Again, project managers and functional managers should have a meeting of the minds and ensure nobody gets then wrong idea that what is happening day-to-day is not that important. Those days a developer loses because they are not sure about what it is they are supposed to be doing can add up quickly at the beginning of a project.