Functional Management and Organizational Change

The functional management level is where organizational change efforts are solidified or circumvented. While senior managers are charged with creating an atmosphere conducive to organizational change, it is the functional managers who must make it happen. Whereas senior management generally represents high-level goals for the organization, functional management usually has more specific goals that don't always completely align with those of the project. Additionally, most organizations have competitive undercurrents between departments and functional areas. A certain amount of organizational competition or tension is actually healthy for the business. It forces people to continually push themselves toward improvement. However, all too often the tension becomes personal when people become protective of their turf and not only fend off others who might encroach on them, but actively try to expand their area of influence. This line of thinking is the basis of the so-called silo mentality, where strengthening of the silo becomes more important than the overall organizational goals to the functional manager. This attitude naturally is filtered down to the individuals who work on the project teams, and this is where the problem is generally first identified.

As the agile project progresses, it is not only breaking new ground within the project itself, but it is also breaking new organizational ground. The project manager and other change champions will be looking for ways to bridge these new organizational obstacles. Both the project team and the functional management team must work together to address these never-before-addressed organizational challenges (see Figure 9-4). Usually, it will be the project team that pushes for change, since its members have identified it as a potential issue preventing the project from moving forward. On the other hand, functional management may be somewhat resistant to change, since it's looking for more predictability and less risk within its domain. Functional managers generally don't see the whole picture from the project's perspective, and, very often, the project team doesn't spend the time to educate them. Many functional managers have been brought up in the old school, where project teams operated within already-defined organizational boundaries, not the other way around. The change champions of the project team need to spend time making their case to functional managers also. They must lay out the big picture and explain why the rapid pace of change in today's business environment requires increased organizational agility. They must show how participating in the creation of this organizational agility will actually strengthen, not weaken, each manager's respective functional organization.

	Project Change	Organizational Change
Upper Management	Manages the linkages between the business strategy and the tactical project portfolio	Creates an environment supportive of organizational change
Functional Management	Obtains and aligns the skills necessary to advance projects	Works with project teams to design and implement organizational changes

Figure 9-4: A summary of management roles unique to the agile project environment.

Agile Strategy

Make the case to management regarding organizational change by laying out the big picture and its implications to the project, the functional areas, and the overall business.

The leadership organizations of the future will be those with the capacity and agility to adapt to the situation at hand and effectively execute strategy through projects. Whether at the business level or the department level, organizations that cannot, or will not, adapt will be left behind and may eventually be dismantled in favor of more flexible structures.