The Pie and Matrix Project Model

My last post introduced the "pie". Today, I'll explain how we turn a pie on its side to represent a “matrix”. To recap, many iterative project methodology models are circular.

For example, in my last post, I chose slices (or project stages) Plan, Discover, Design, Build, etc.

Now, let's take this two-dimensional pie and flip it on its side to show its edge. The side view is what I call the pie stack layers. Let's say a layer is called Project Management. Under the first slice called Plan is a cell that aligns with Project Management. If you were to look in this cell, you may find process steps such as identify business needs, define budget, etc.

In the above screenshot you can see a health care program with multiple sub-projects as a matrix stack. Revenue Cycle, Managed Care, and the others all align well with their phases or what we call Pie “slices”.

So, the Pie layers are sub-projects of a larger program (or major project), and their cells contain process methodology, best practice, or procedure tasks.

The idea of looking at the pie from its three-dimensional layer view is you can start to stack up more process layers as sub-projects. This is where the matrix becomes clear. The slices are columns and the layers are rows. What is interesting about this model is it forces each process methodology or best practice to align with each other with phase nomenclature.

Many companies are struggling with different process methodologies on large projects, each method having its own structure and phase names.

Let's say if an IT team is using the PMI standard for project management. Now throw in a security team with their own process for security requirements. You end up with groups of people on the same project speaking different languages.

What if we formulated a pie-matrix structure that forces all team members to agree on the naming of the project stages (pie slices). Then add each process methodology as a layer project combined into a stack. Now have stage alignment between standards.

This is the basic model we created for the Pie platform and this was only the starting point. Pie is an open web application and is process content agnostic, meaning its up to our users to enter any best practice content they choose.

We expanded the application to allow further integration of different standards with pointers across standards boundaries. We added project task management features for the front line team members, dashboards for governance, and an SaaS model where people can collaborate together from anywhere around the world, all speaking the same process language and working together on the same page.

*** Update January 2020. The photo above is from our more recent 2019 version. We updated this post with our new lovely Pie user interface.)