How organisational culture and structure affect project managementANALYSIS The differences in project management success rates may

be a result of the fact that some organisations do a better job of training their project managers. So t hey may be more skilled and knowledgeable in the project management discipline. But the way your organisation deals with training is just one aspect of your ove rall organisational culture. A number of big-picture factors influence your abil ity to deliver projects successfully. Let's look at two of them: culture and str ucture. Culture has a huge effect on your success rate Your organisation's culture has a lot to do with the success rate of your projec ts. Keep in mind that I'm talking about projects all throughout your organisatio n, not just about one particular project. The term culture generally means "how we do things around here." Imagine that someone asks you how successfully your o rganisation delivers projects. If you say: "We're pretty poor at delivering proj ects," you're voicing a perception of one aspect of your culture. Culture comes into play on projects in a number of areas. Process orientation Many organisations have good processes in place and people generally follow them . This is perhaps the biggest single factor in overall project success. If your organisation follows a good, scalable project management process, you're more li kely to be consistently successful on your projects. The entire project team gen erally knows how to create and follow a work plan, and can use standard processe s to effectively handle risk, scope change, and issues. Governance Many organisations have processes in place, but no one follows them. This highli ghts a problem with management governance. In simplistic terms, governance is th e management function that has to do with making sure people do what they're sup posed to do. Typically, if your management structure is engaged and interested i n projects, and if managers make sure that your project management process is fo llowed, you'll be more successful. If every project manager is on his or her own and management support is haphazard, however, you'll tend to fail. Training Some organisations do a poor job of training project managers. Typically, these organisations do a poor job of training in general. If project managers don't ha ve the right skills (other than from the school of hard knocks), you are unlikel y to be successful. Roles and responsibilities In successful organisations, people typically know the role they play on project s and what is expected of them. This includes active sponsors, interested client s, and engaged management stakeholders. The sponsor, for instance, needs to perf orm a quality assurance role and be the project champion in his or her organisat ion. If your organisation starts projects and leaves the project manager in a le adership vacuum, you're not going to be consistently successful. Culture plays p erhaps the biggest role in whether your organisation is successful in executing projects. If your organisation has difficulty completing projects successfully, you can't blame the project managers. They're only toiling within a culture that 's not supportive of their efforts. Managers, including the head of the organisa tion, need to step up and evaluate the project culture. Until the culture change s, project managers will consistently struggle to be successful.