Project managers have a wide range of responsibilities. Meredith, Mantel and Shafer (2017, p. 34) mention some
responsibilities as being facilitator, communicator, convener, meeting chair, and as a handler of risks and tradeoffs. Responsibilities include maintaining communication and performance levels among members of the project
team. Projects occur within many different types of organizational structures and projects themselves tend to
have varying structures as well. Organizational structures can be characterized as functional, matrix, or
projectized (most commonly found in IT-based organizations where much of the work is project focused).
Project teams may be made up of members on loan (both full- and part-time) from functional areas within an
organization and those members may be active for all or part of the project’s length.
Directions:
Part I
Select 2 areas of responsibility that a project manager has and suggest what knowledge, skills and abilities the
project manager needs to be successful in those areas.
include a short example for each area of responsibility and how the knowledge or skill might be used.
Part II
List at least one advantage and one disadvantage for one of the different types of project management
organizational structures.
Illustrate the advantage and disadvantage using an example (Types: Functional, matrix, project, and mixed
organizations).
