CHAPTER ONE What the Functional Manager Should Know About the Project Organization If this book has caught your eye, you are most likely a functional manager working on a project that is not going well. Or, you face an upcoming project that must go well to prevent a serious negative impact on your professional life. If so, you have the right book. Little attention is given to improving functional managers' proj- ect management skill sets. Why? For one, many functional managers do not even recognize that a project management discipline exists. But best practices in project management, backed by research, have evolved over the past 40 years. These best practices encompass large and small projects in technology, construction, business process im- provement initiatives, and more. Another obstacle is that many functional managers reject project management methodologies, processes, and terminology because project teams either consistently miss their deliverable dates or over- run their budgets. This leads functional managers to underestimate the value of project management in general and feeds attitudes of ``project management is a waste of time,'' or ``project management slows down the process,'' or ``project management is just a bunch of bureaucratic silliness.'' Such attitudes create a formidable barrier between project teams and their business units. In many organizations, project management's focus is on con- trolling and reducing the money wasted on projects. Management 3 American Managememt Association · www.amanet.org