Martin Training Associates

Making Matrix Management Work

Smashing the Functional Barriers to
Managing Business Processes & Projects

by Paula K. Martin, Executive Consultant, Martin Training Associates


Whether or not you have a formal matrix structure, your organization, like every organization, operates in as a matrix and should be managed as such. Organizations are matrices because work is done cross-functionally while resources are managed functionally.

Work is accomplished through either projects or business processes. The major business processes (such as operations or revenue generation) and the portfolio of projects (which includes all ongoing projects within the organization) cross functional lines and must be managed from a cross-functional perspective. Cross-functionally outputs get produced for customers, who are either internal or external to the organization. This is the horizontal dimension of the matrix.

In the vertical dimension we have the functions. Their role is to oversee the use of a specific set of resources, resources that do similar types of tasks such as marketing or software development. The functions should exist to serve the horizontal dimension - ensuring that projects and business processes serve their customers and are as run as efficiently as possible.

There are several key factors for managing successfully in a matrix:

  1. There must be a project steering council that manages the portfolio of projects. This allows managers to collaboratively select, prioritize and fund projects across functions.
  2. There must be business process steering councils established to oversee the maintenance and improvement and each business process that crosses functional lines.
  3. The system for goal setting in the organization begin with the strategic plan and then be decomposed by the project steering council and the business process councils. Only after goals for the councils have been set do goals for functions get deployed.
  4. The system of accountability must be revamped to include both horizontal and vertical accountability. In addition, accountability must be defined in a proactive mode.
  5. The reward and recognition systems must support the first four keys listed above.

There has been a lot of confusion about how to manage in a matrix, including such stupid ideas as:

  • Dual reporting
  • Reorganizing around the horizontal dimension in order to avoid working
    in two dimensions

Dual reporting is based on an old paradigm belief that in order to get anything done you need to have authority. Since project managers had no one reporting to them, they had no formal authority and so dual reporting was invented to provide the project manager and the functional manager authority over people resources. All dual reporting accomplishes is to pull the individual contributor in two different directions, leaving it up to him to decide which "boss" to follow.

Reorganizing around horizontal lines without regard for the vertical needs of the organization only creates horizontal instead of vertical silos.

Organizations are more difficult to manage than they used to be as all managers must operate in two dimensions instead of one. However, the answer is not to try and apply old paradigm models of management to today's organizations. The answer is to learn how to effectively manage in a matrix.

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