Organizational structure : management techniques and lessons learned in aligning technical and program management resources in engineering-intensive organizations

Abstract

The roles of systems engineering, program and project management, and engineering management are continuously blurred and challenged in complex engineering organizations. The demands made of each of these functions can lead to increasing role confusion in otherwise historically well-defined functions. It is important to understand the reasons for existing practices in defining and utilizing these roles and the functions they perform in today's engineering systems. It is the goal of this thesis to show the motivation for current practices in systems and program management, and to shed light on some of the lessons learned in managing both the technology as well as the encompassing technology programs. We look specifically at existing practices in the aerospace industry as our case-study to understand matrix organizational structures, as well as gain insights from the commercial industry and academic literature on the practices deployed in innovation and new product development and management. keywords: product development, matrix organization, systems engineering, program and project management, engineering management, managing innovation