From organising as projects to projects as organisations

Nowadays, projects and project management can be found in virtually all organisations. Accordingly, preventing project failure has become increasingly critical. In light of this, attempts have been made to redefine the conceptual bases of project management and to define new avenues for research, development of the field, and practical application. So far, theory from organisation design has been under-explored with respect to understanding project organisations and their structures. This paper contributes by considering projects as organisations, having a specific structure. Based on the seminal work of Mintzberg [Mintzberg H. The structuring of organizations. Prentice-Hall, 1979] we develop a typology of project structures. Two illustrative case studies are discussed. The typology shows that contingency factors of projects need to be reflected in appropriate project structures.