Hi Manish,

Not sure the rationale for asking the question - Why Flat Organizations Need Project Management Software? Is it because most of the flat organizations don't have / lack of middle level managers causing the need for project management software?  If yes - I came across hierachical organizations e.g. big 5 audit / consulting firms / government agencies also adopt project management software in delivering some of their projects.  Albeit also came across flat organizations like large IT Hardware / Services companies in the world also use project management software in their engagements.  Think more managers don't rule out the need to use project management software, because some project management works best run / handle by software instead of by human's manual interaction method.

Regards,

Fung

Hi Manish;

In science, there are some preconditions of asking question in order to have valid questions. I have few of them for you:

1. you have to have concrete examples for flat organizations to study: What concrete flat organizations are you talking about? Please name them and explain why their organizational structure is flat and why there is no0 hierarchical relationships in this concrete organizations? How can you talk about flat organizations if there is hierarchical division of labor? Please, do not confuse the invalid theoretical explanations with the real life conditions in organizations.

2. You must provide convincing theoretical rationale which is supported by research in concrete organizations in order to establish the following causal relationship:  "Weak project management often results in undefined objectives, poor communication, and missed deadlines". How about  the co-existence of Weak project management often results in undefined objectives, poor communication, and missed deadlines?

3. We have to have flat organizations and study them in order to answer your question which is  "without managers, can flat organizations remain efficient and organized?"

Please, firstly, try to think about the validity of your assumptions and questions in the light of accumulated knowledge (especially critical knowledge) and real life conditions.

I hope I shed a little light. 

irfan erdogan  

Hello Manish,

In flat organizations communication flows very easily (what is a huge advantage...), but activities sitll have to be planned and controled (i.e. must be managed). Therefore, PM SW are enablers to good management in vertical/complex organizations and flat ones.

 Dear Manish,

Your question may have come from your experience on few cases.  it cannot be generalize for all flat organizations.

however, you have a point  do a case study, and try to build a theory.  It is important as project management is a field without theories of  itself.

Upananda

Thank you all for your valuable inputs and insightful suggestions, I sincerely appreciate it and would try to act upon them to the best of my level. However, I need to clarify some points here as I must to support my concern, I believe.

If you observe closely, I have provided a link below ‘my question’ and its description. This link leads to an article with the title ‘Why Flat Organizations Need Project Management Software?’ on http://Proofhub.com by Jenna Puckett, a staff writer for ‘TechnologyAdvice’, wherein she has tried to discuss this topic with all aspects of it. Although she has tried to make her article as comprehensive as possible, with a subject having a global perspective and local effect, I thought I could get some more views on it from Research Experts who might have deliberated the subject matter from diverse perspectives.

Secondly, being an Independent Consultant for Organization Development and Project Management, I come across various types of organizations with different structures and process methodologies. To summarize what I have observed in my practice so far is – hierarchical organizations practice a top down approach where there is less communication and more execution without much brainstorming; very common practice in most of the mechanically-operated-workflow-organizations. On the other hand there are so-called flat organizations that strive for inclusion of entire TEAM (or ‘Board’ if you would like to call it) in the decision making process by empowering it with tools like communication and collaboration.

Nevertheless, there seem to be a dire need of keeping transparent to facilitate the creative process in a flat organization. At the same time, every innovation that is borne in mind needs to be manifested, developed and tracked; not to mention, logged and recorded, as it progresses towards fulfillment. And this entire journey of an idea to its realization and the process of making it possible should must be governed by strict baselines like Cost and Time and regularly checked for Quality and Risks. Here comes the Project Management tool in picture. ‘Project management software empowers employees to self-organize every project from start to finish, meet deadlines with greater precision, and turn innovative ideas into reality…’ as Jenna suggests to conclude her article which I wholeheartedly agree with.

Now, hoping that I have tried to make the picture a little clearer, I would greatly appreciate if I could get some useful and applicable insights, like the one from Henrique Rocha (Thanks, Henrique), on ‘Having, Employing and Exploiting PM tools in a Flat Organization’, so to say. Although I understand that this platform is academic in nature and emphasis on theory would be its elemental characteristics, I would like to reiterate Albert Einstein here ‘If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts...!’ Thank you all.

Flat organisations need to implement virtual role hierarchies from time to time. In a project initiative there needs to be a governance role that one or more of the team needs to adopt if the initiative is to move forward. Whether that role is characterised as PM leadership role or a SCRUM Master servant leader role is largely immaterial in my view. Remember that a camel is a horse developed by a committee and move on

Dear Manish,

Even in any flat organization, there is a project manager who has project plan and schedules in software (e.g., MS Project).  Moreover, project is broken down to WBS and he knows exactly when to start, when to finish, what is required, and how to run the project sequentially without affecting other work packages..  

Then the necessity of middle managers are minimized and flat organization may more  profitable than a tall organization provided that harmony of the project team is maintained.

Upananda

Dear Manish,

Thanks for your prompt response.

Upananda

Thanks Michael, an interesting perspective for sure...!