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2 - PROJECT LIFE CYCLE AND ORGANIZATION

• Learning new things,

• Competent technical leaders,
• Opportunities to experiment with new ideas,

• Compelling vision or end-state,
• Adequate training and mentoring, and

• Adequate software tools and computing technology.
Software development tends to be a learning and knowledge-sharing experience. In addition to the factors
identified in the PMBOK Guide, organizational factors that increase learning and sharing among project team
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members and that therefore increase product quality and project performance include:

• Collaborative culture and work environment,
• Easy access to cross-functional team members,

• Opportunities to discuss issues in a timely fashion,
• Access to needed information,
• Well-defined and effective organizational interfaces,

• Colocation or electronic connectivity that results in easy communication among the team members, and
• High level of trust among the team members and among the project team and the project manager, other
managers, and the customer that provides for open discussion of challenges and options.

Conversely, the absence of these factors can result in decreased motivation and morale at both the individual and
team level. These factors are important for all knowledge workers; they are very important for software developers.

2.1.2 Organizational Communications

Software organizations, like other modern organizations, utilize the communication mechanism noted in
Section 2.1.2 of the PMBOK Guide. In particular, the representation of software work products in electronic
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media and the growth of the Internet and web infrastructure have made possible the globalization of software
development. Software project managers increasingly manage geographically dispersed projects.

2.1.3 Organizational Structures

Software enterprises can organize projects as individual entities, project-by-project (projectized organization); by
coordination among functional units (functional organization); or as a matrix organization that combines projectized and
functional structures. Various kinds of organizational structures are presented in Section 2.1.3 of the PMBOK Guide.
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Internally a software project is typically organized into one or more small teams (i.e., ten or fewer members
per team) where the number of teams depends on the scope of the project. Small, coordinated teams minimize

20 ©2013 Project Management Institute. Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide Fifth Edition
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