Tips for Managing Matrixed Resources in Project Management

One of the toughest jobs of the project manager isdays the program had only received 60% of the
making sure you actually receive the resources youresources we needed.  
have been given for your project.  People resources 
are the trickiest of all because each person assignedThe smaller the time commitment, the lower our
to you can choose to come to your meetings or not,project sat within each individual’s priority list. Once
answer their phone or not, respond to your e-mails orthe buy-out was announced, missed meetings and
not, review materials you send them or not, do theirdelayed meetings became rampant. Within this 90-day
work on time or not, and so on.window, we had only one three-week period where
 we operated at full strength.
If your team members are also your employees, then 
you have tremendous influence over these decisions. It is worth noting that even with this chronic 40%
But in many project situations - virtually all large projectmatrixed resource shortfall, our project suffered only a
situations - your team members are not your20% delay in deliverables. The reason is we still had
employees, instead they are ‘borrowed’ fromdedicated resources in the most critical positions, and
other managers in the company. they were able to create all sorts of workaround
 solutions that helped us make substantial progress in
This means their number-one priority is NOT you orthe face of otherwise overwhelming resource losses.
your project; their top priority is pleasing and meeting 
the needs of their line manager.Since matrixed resources with split-time allocations are
 a fact of life in projects, how can you manage them
If you get people resources on a ‘dedicated’successfully?
basis – meaning you get 100% of their time for the 
duration of your project – then their manager hasThe solution is 3-fold:
pretty much handed them over to you.  You 
effectively become their line manager for that time1)     Staff your team with the ‘right’ mix of
period, usually up to and including giving input to theirdedicated and split-time resources.
performance, salary and bonus reviews. 
 For medium and large projects, in general, the shorter
However, in any situation where an employee has tothe timeline, the more dedicated resources you need.
split his or her time between working for their lineAnd, the more complex the project, the more
manager and working for your project - even if youdedicated resources you will need, so each key
negotiate prorated input to their performance reviewsaspect of the project gets needed attention and
- you need to understand that the other manager hascreative leadership brainpower.  Even if your project
far greater influence over their time and decisions thanis well underway as you read this, you can always
you have.  You will have to deal with that fact for thestep back and re-negotiate time commitments, if
duration of your project.needed.
  
It is a good practice to be wary of time commitments2)     Track the time you actually receive from
for any resource assigned to you on a split-time basis,your resources each week and note any shortfalls, no
particularly if anyone is allocated to you less than 50%.matter how small. 
Here is: 
 This is largely a guesstimation exercise you and your
Why a less-than-50% allocation so often fails:leads conduct at the end of each week.  If you wait
 till after the weekend, you will have already forgotten
- Human nature is such that both you and thehow the week went.  If you wait for your time
person’s line manager will both attempt to task thistracking reports – in the event your company not
person 100% anyway, creating a situation in which allonly has time tracking tools but actually uses them –
three of you will lose.not only will the data be too late, it will usually be
 incomplete.  In most companies, your pivotal business
- Human nature also dictates that if it comes to makingand management people aren’t required to use
a choice between pleasing you or pleasing a linethose tools. 
manager, then the person will choose the one who has 
the most impact on salary, bonuses, performance3)     Take immediate action to win back your
reviews, and job security. In a matrix situation, you lose.allocated time from any shortfall resource(s). 
  
- People in this situation inevitably find their energy andDon’t take a ‘wait and see’ approach if
attention is fragmented between the project and allsomeone misses a meeting or is late in a task or a
other work. It takes more time and effort on your partresponse.  Instead, immediately follow-up and find out
to keep such team members up-do-date onif this is a one-time event or a warning sign of more
what’s happening in the project. They, in turn, losemisses to come.  Find out what your team member
track and lose momentum switching back and forth.needs in order to be able to attend all future
 meetings.  Work with them, and their line manager if
- People whose time is fragmented miss meetings.necessary, to clear up any conflicts or issues. Then
Your project is now subject to the whims andfigure out to make up for the time that was lost, so
inefficiencies of whatever else is going on in theiryou can make sure your project stays on track.
non-project time. When emergencies crop up in those 
areas, your project suffers.These three items are common sense solutions, but it
 is surprisingly uncommon to see a project manager do
The worse case I ever saw of this was when I wasthem all.  Be one of the uncommon few!  Since
working as a consultant to one Fortune 500 companymissing-in-action resources are such a challenging and
during a time period in which they started andchronic issue in many projects, there is a good chance
concluded buy-out negotiations with another Fortuneat least one of these three options can help you
500 company. People who had been assigned to mytoday. 
project on a split-time basis suddenly began skippingFor more information visit to check into the book, look
project meetings because they were getting pulled byfor Barb’s micro project management sessions on
their line managers into meetings related to theU-Tube, or e-mail with any questions.
buy-out.  The impact to my project was that after 90