Performance evaluation model of the client's matrix organization for a design project

Conducting a design project of a high-tech facility requires various specialties and rigorous user needs provided from the facility client. Sometime, project client will form a matrix organization with several interrelated functional and projectized divisions to decide those requirements and needs. However, an ill-defined matrix organization very likely causes late and indefinite decisions. Consequently, poor performance of design arises. Identifying the divisions most responsible for the poor performance should support design management. This study proposes a new model to identify key divisions that drive poor performance of design project. In the model, a satisfied importance analysis (SIA) is used to evaluate the performance of each division, while a decision making trial and evaluation laboratory technique (DEMATEL) is applied to capture the causal relationships among divisions to generate an influence-relations map. The model is applied to a real-world high-tech facility design project in Taiwan to indicate the strengths of the model.