A project organizational chart serves as a blueprint of project structure that outlines the relationships among team members and their roles and responsibilities. It is essential to determine the organizational chart early in the project startup phase and its relationship with the parent organizational structure. The Midas Program chart of Dalton Corporation can be used as an example to illustrate this concept.

The organizational chart usually portrays the project’s priorities and places the client’s project at the top, in boldface, to make them feel important. The employees included in the chart may work part-time or full-time, depending on the project’s requirements. It may not show the true “dotted/solid” reporting relationships in the company but is created solely for the customer’s benefit.

After creating the organizational chart, the next step is to develop the program office structure. The program office structure depicts the dual reporting responsibilities of the chief of operations and the chief engineer. They report directly to the program manager and indirectly to the directors. However, this reporting structure may not be the real one, as the real reporting structure might be reversed.

The program office structure also outlines the permanent and part-time positions of the program office members. Although the positions appear as solid lines, they may actually be dotted lines. For example, an employee might work only part-time on the program, but the chart shows them as a permanent program office member. The chart also provides information on the percentage of time employees spend on the program.

Once the program office structure is developed, the project engineering department’s manning is defined to show the resources’ allocation and the work they perform. This information is depicted in Figure 4–11, where the expertise and the percentage of time employees spend on the program are outlined.

In conclusion, the organizational chart serves as a blueprint for the project’s structure. It outlines the project’s priorities, defines team members’ roles and responsibilities, and depicts the dual reporting responsibilities of the program office members. The chart provides essential information on the resources’ allocation and the work performed by the team members.