In this article, I would like to introduce the last important role in the project management team and explain why it makes sense to invest the necessary capacity in this role.

The Project Organization

Whenever a new large project starts, the same question always arises:

Can we set up a project house for the project where all the people working on this project sit together in one large area, communicate directly with each other every day, and work exclusively on this one project?

And every time we come to the same conclusion:

It would be good and make sense, but somehow it's not possible.

* We don't have space where several hundred people can fit.

* Many activities can only be carried out in a specific place that is not in the project house, for example, testing and validation.

* Most people must also work on other projects simultaneously.

* We have competencies at international locations, and it would be too costly to relocate all the people to one location.

* People have strong communication needs in their functional area with colleagues who are not on the project.

* And last but not least, the disciplinary supervisors also like to have their people with them to stay informed about what's happening in their area of responsibility within the project.

So it always comes down to a compromise. At best, only part of the team is permanently present in the project house.

Now the question arises: how can the project structure be designed so that integrated collaboration is definitely achieved, even if not everyone is always together in one place and can permanently exchange ideas with each other?

But let's assume we would really manage to gather several hundred people in a project house. Would they really organize themselves completely on their own without organizational support?

I believe even then it would require a project structure that focuses exactly on this and explicitly ensures that everyone understands exactly what needs to be done, actually does it, and that the work results of individual employees are available on time, integrated, and of the required quality.

What does the solution look like then?

In an automotive company, we usually find a functional organization where employees of the functional areas are locally concentrated.

The functional areas have an organizational model and a communication model that help the managers of the functional areas lead their employees both professionally and disciplinary.

I think it's organized similarly in many other industrial sectors.

The structures in the functional areas can and should be used for project work.

The role that has the task of organizing project work in the functional areas and ensuring cross-functional coordination is the Functional Unit Representative.

The Functional Unit Representative (FUR)

The Functional Unit Representatives are employees dedicated to the project who control and coordinate all project-specific functional area activities.

I deliberately speak in the plural because logically, there should be at least as many Functional Unit Representatives as there are relevant functional areas involved in the project.

Each Functional Unit Representative is part of the project management team and is both professionally and organizationally capable of representing the employees of their functional area in the project management team.

At the same time, they are the representative of the project management team in the functional area, steering the project's interests into the functional area and ensuring processing.

With this task assignment, the question automatically arises whether the Functional Unit Representative is actually just a mail carrier between the functional area and the project. Are they the paralyzing layer that isolates the working workforce from the project manager?

No, absolutely not!

They are project leaders in the functional area, factually leading a project house within the functional area.

They are close confidants and right-hand people of the functional area leadership and enable them to fulfill their leadership responsibility.

While the project manager themselves is a generalist across all functional areas and has the competence to plan, control, and make decisions across all functional areas. The Functional Unit Representative is a specialist who knows their area of responsibility excellently. He is a competent contact person for the employees in this area.

They represent the functional area and bring professionally qualified input into the project management work at the project level.

What distinguishes them from a mail carrier is that they make decisions and give instructions to employees.

And that's exactly the Achilles' heel that this role has in real project work.

The employees and managers of the functional area must accept that the Functional Unit Representative is the central contact person who controls the activities. They may not be bypassed when it's inconvenient, and one can't handle their tasks.

At the same time, however, the Functional Unit Representative must not shy away from responsibility just because they don't know everything.

The Functional Unit Representative must have the unrestricted trust of the project management team, the functional area employees, and the functional area managers.

For this reason, an extensive network and a solid amount of experience in the represented function are necessary for this task.

According to the principle already presented in other articles:

The project controls, the line function delivers

The Functional Unit Representative has the control task within the functional area.

They ensure that quality gates, project milestones, project increments, and sprints are broken down, planned, and communicated to functional area employees according to the necessities of the project.

They support internal functional area and cross-functional coordination, prioritize deliverables and activities, and coordinate the consequences of this prioritization in the project management team with other Functional Unit Representatives, the project manager, the project management master, and the project architect.

The Functional Area

In a company where projects are processed in a matrix organization setup, each functional area must therefore have a sufficiently large number of employees who can perform these tasks.

And since they don't grow on trees, it's the task of functional units management to systematically train these employees and maintain them in the functional area's capacity planning.

Furthermore, it's necessary to give functional area representatives the necessary attention in the functional area.

They have the competence to schedule project meetings in the functional area where attendance is mandatory. Even if employees are not dedicatedly released for the respective project, participation in their project meetings is not a wish-for-whatever event.

You might think: Why does he write this? It's absolutely logical and self-evident! You don't have to tell anyone that.

If it really is self-evident in your organization, then I can only congratulate you on the company. In my experience, it's usually not self-evident at all and requires an explicitly expressed and sustained commitment from functional unit managers to ensure this.

Furthermore, functional unit managers must take the time to listen to the Functional Unit Representative and contribute their share to fulfilling project results and project goals.

The Project Structure

The project structure now looks as follows:

We see here a matrix organization. The Functional Unit Representative is the only role involved in all dimensions.

They are thus factually the pivot point of the matrix organization in the product project.

I cannot emphasize enough how important this role, often somewhat undervalued, is in a large project.

Therefore, I would also like to express my thanks to all Functional Unit Representatives at this point and hope that as many people as possible read this article and treat the Functional Unit Representative with appropriate attention and appreciation.

So, please share this article in your organization and encourage people to take the time to read it.

To make it a bit more complicated at the end, I don't want to hide from you that Functional Unit Representatives can even exist at multiple levels.

This was the case in the projects where I was active, where the project was organized into functional area-oriented subprojects.

This then means that there are subproject managers for development, purchasing, production, etc. These then have Functional Unit Representatives in their subproject management team who control further functional structures within the respective functional area.

I definitely don't want to claim that this organizational form is the best way to organize a large project with several hundred to several thousand project participants. Nevertheless, it should be recognized that in this structure, the subproject managers take on the role of a Functional Unit Representative.

I need to mention this because there's also the possibility of dividing a project into subprojects that develop separate product segments and where the subprojects don't follow functional logic. In that case, the subproject managers are not Functional Unit Representatives and have another role.

That's it for today. Please write your opinion about the role of the Functional Unit Representative in the comments. Does it exist in your organization? Do you have experience with this role?

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