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Functional design
organization
Project design
organization
Task force
Matrix organization
Chapter 5 The design of products and services 133
project, a budget and, hopefully, a clear strategic purpose in the organization. The organizational
question is which of these two ideas – the various organizational functions which
contribute to the design or the design project itself – should dominate the way in which the
design activity is managed?
Before answering this, it is useful to look at the range of organizational structures which
are available – from pure functional to pure project forms. In a pure functional organization,
all staff associated with the design project are based unambiguously in their functional groups.
There is no project-based group at all. They may be working full-time on the project but all
communications and liaison are carried out through their functional manager. The project
exists because of agreement between these functional managers. At the other extreme, all the
individual members of staff from each function who are involved in the project could be
moved out of their functions and perhaps even physically relocated to a task force dedicated
solely to the project. The task force could be led by a project manager who might hold all the
budget allocated to the design project. Not all members of the task force necessarily have to
stay in the team throughout the development period, but a substantial core might see the
project through from start to finish. Some members of a design team may even be from other
companies. In between these two extremes there are various types of matrix organization
with varying emphasis on these two aspects of the organization (see Fig. 5.12). Although the
‘task force’ type of organization, especially for small projects, can sometimes be a little
cumbersome, it seems to be generally agreed that, for substantial projects at least, it is more
effective at reducing overall time to market. 11
Figure 5.12 Organization structures for the design activity