Matrix teams are a common method of staffing projects. If you were to draw a picture of it, a matrix structure in its simplest form might have projects running down the left side of the chart, and departments (e.g., engineering, research, purchasing, production) running across the top.

To staff a project, you would pull personnel from each of the departments and create your project team. Each team member most likely would report to his or her department manager as well as the project manager. Just like many other areas of project management, matrix teams have their benefits and their challenges. Let’s discuss some of the pitfalls in using matrix teams on projects.

Money isn’t needed to save the world

Only in fiction can this be true; in the real world, not so much. Typically, matrix teams are formed using internal company staff.

If a software engineer, we’ll call him “Neo,” is needed on a project, then IT is asked if Neo can be assigned to the project. The downside, of course, is that when a price of a project is estimated, in many cases the “cost” a company is “paying” Neo to be on a project is ignored.

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