190 Project Management
Upper Management
The senior management of your organization may or may not be
involved in your project in a direct way, but they’re the ultimate
stakeholders. What if all of your organization’s projects were dis-
mal failures, wasting large amounts of money and other
resources for little or no business results? Upper management
would be perceived as incompetent. If you’re assigned to a criti-
cal or high-visibility project, upper management may wish to
play a more active role. Hopefully, their involvement will be posi-
tive and not lead to unnecessary or unproductive meddling or
micromanagement—two of the project manager’s greatest fears.
The Core Project Team
Many people will work on your project, perhaps dozens if your
project is large. In many cases, however, you’ll be directly and
immediately assisted by a relatively small group of people—the
core team. Core teams can be constructed any number of ways.
In most matrix organizations, various departments or work
groups will be needed to complete the project. In this kind of
project environment, core teams are normally composed of a
singlerepresentative from each participating department.
When a clear-cut departmental model is not appropriate,
core team roles often tie more closely to the work to be done.
As major elements of work are identified, shrewd project man-
agers will seek out the person who’s best equipped to perform
that element of work effectively and efficiently.
Functional Supervision (Resource Providers)
In matrix organizations, it’s common for project managers to
“borrow” resources from other departments. The managers who
control those resources are a special kind of stakeholder. When
their people are working on your projects, they’re representing
their department. You might think that this kind of relationship
would foster a strong sense of stake within functional supervi-
sors. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Gently reminding
functional supervisors that the people they assign are a reflec-
tion on them and their group can help build a stronger sense of