Seven recommendations for managing projectification

Abstract

Over the past half-century projects and project-based work have become more and more important to organizations. This may be inevitable due to the increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of our modern world. Many organizations routinely use project structures to develop new products, enter new markets, or upgrade IT systems, for example. A project is a set of tasks aimed at achieving a specific outcome, and a project structure is a temporary structure within which the tasks are performed. Projectification is a process of change whereby organizations increasingly adopt a project way of work. Hence, a projectified organization becomes a hybrid of temporary structures managed as projects and permanent structures managed as functions or departments. Projectification has many downsides, some of which stem from increased organizational complexity. Still, projectification fosters innovation and change, making it a necessary feature in many modern organizations. Ideally, projectification should be done gradually, and it requires significant changes throughout the organization. In this article we present seven recommendations for senior managers in projectifying organizations.