What is the best way to organize software engineers in an existing matrix enterprise?
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Authors
Mendiola, Eduardo
Issue Date
2009
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Engineering management
Alternative Title
Abstract
The matrix organization introduced a dual hierarchy: it incorporates simultaneously the essential functional and divisional configuration of an organization. Large enterprises have been adopting the matrix organizational structure over the last few decades. Software engineers, for example, are commonly shared among multiple projects as a response to the various enterprise information initiatives. Temporary teams are created in such project-driven enterprises. This is a type of matrix organization. This motivated the question addressed in this study: what is the best way to organize teams of software engineers? The key is determining what exactly we are trying to optimize: decision quality, timeliness, cost, communication, or autonomy, as examples. The purpose of this report is to examine a few current organizational structures in an enterprise and attempt to produce mathematical models using linear programming that would help optimize those structures. These models can then serve as reference for the organizational design of future software engineering projects.