Navigating Cross-Functional Dependencies: Collaborating Across Organizational Boundaries
This is a challenge that every leader faces - whether you're a project manager, director, or functional manager. You need critical support from subject matter experts who don't report to you, aren't dedicated to your project, and have their own full-time responsibilities. It's one of those situations that can make or break an initiative. Let me share a story about how I navigated this common scenario.
A Prototype That Changed Everything
I was brought onto a provider engagement portal project that had been through five project managers over two years. When I picked it up, my job was to give it the momentum and direction it desperately needed.
The tool was designed to streamline the interaction between healthcare providers and us, including claim filing, status checks, referrals, and authorizations. We started by reviewing an old survey that had been completed before I came on board. Together with the team, we determined what had already been accomplished during those two years of project drift and what still needed attention. I completed a gap analysis and market analysis to understand where we really stood.
Then we built a prototype - something the President and CEO had specifically requested. When we showcased it to them, they immediately saw the possibilities. The potential time savings were significant. Call times would have dropped substantially, and efficiency gains would have been immediate and undeniable once fully implemented. That's when they fast-tracked the project.
Inheriting a Zombie Project
Let me be clear about what I walked into. This project had been assigned to five different project managers over two years. That's a zombie project if there ever was one - active on the books but lurking without real direction.
I rebuilt the foundation this project needed. But as I moved forward, I hit a significant obstacle that had nothing to do with the quality of the work or the brilliance of the solution. The obstacle was misaligned priorities across different divisions.
The Dependency Dilemma
Our application needed to connect to the claims processing system's database. We were dependent on the Facets Administration team for knowledge transfer and to establish connectivity.
Here's where it got complicated: this team operated under a completely different division than where I sat in the PMO and followed a different communication channel. At some point, wires got crossed. The Facets team had been told to deprioritize this initiative. Meanwhile, this was not my only project, but it was my CIO's top priority due to its positive impact to the organization - significant improvements to revenue-generating activities with little to no additional operating expenses.
You can imagine the confusion. I'm calling them for support, and they're wondering why I'm bothering them about something they were told wasn't important. I'm baffled about why they think it's not a priority when senior leadership just fast-tracked it.
Neither team was wrong. We were both operating on the information we'd been given. The real challenge was getting everyone on the same page about what actually needed to happen and when.
The Solution: Strategic Empathy and Timing
Instead of trying to force the issue or escalate immediately, I took a different approach. I started paying closer attention to the bigger picture.
In our divisional meetings with senior leadership, I listened carefully. I noticed patterns. There were annual audits that happened like clockwork in Q3 - a period when the Facets team would be heads down and unavailable. One of my project leads was also heavily involved in those audits and would be pulled away from the project.
In addition to audits, I realized something crucial: if I paused this initiative at any point, my dedicated team members would be reassigned to other projects. Getting them back wouldn't be quick or easy.
So I did my homework. Before approaching the Facets Administration team again, I mapped out:
- All the questions we actually needed answered
- Where we were in the project lifecycle
- What specific areas required their expertise
- Their existing workload and recurring commitments
Then I scheduled a meeting with them - not to demand support, but to walk through our needs together.
Building a Working Agreement Between Two Parties
When we sat down, I showed them exactly what we were trying to accomplish and the specific questions we needed their expertise to answer. Something shifted in that conversation.
Once they understood what we were doing and why it mattered, they could see how to help us efficiently. More importantly, they could see that we respected their time and constraints.
What emerged was a solid working agreement between our two teams. We respected that this wasn't their top priority, but it was ours. They respected that we weren't going to waste their time or come to them unprepared. Both teams honored each other's reality.
Managing Stakeholder Expectations
Meanwhile, I had executives asking me for demos and wondering about timelines. As a project manager, I couldn't just say "don't worry about it" - that's neither professional nor reassuring. Instead, I set realistic timelines based on two factors:
- Product readiness - When would we actually have something worth demonstrating?
- SME availability - When could the Facets team realistically support us?
I worked with the product owner to realign our feature timeline around the availability of both the SMEs and our engineers. We built a schedule that acknowledged reality instead of fighting against it.
Applying Organizational Change Management and Negotiation Skills
This experience was an application of organizational change management skills as well as years of negotiating experience - not just as a project manager, but also as an end-user. Here's what I applied when working with SMEs who have full-time jobs that don't include your project:
Understand their world first. Before asking for help, learn about their constraints, regular commitments, and existing priorities. This isn't just courtesy - it's strategic intelligence that helps you ask for support at the right time and in the right way.
Come prepared. When you do engage SMEs, make every interaction count. Know exactly what questions you need answered. Show them you've done your homework and won't waste their time.
Respect competing priorities. Sometimes teams get different messages from different parts of the organization. Don't assume malice or incompetence - work to align understanding across all parties.
Build agreements, not just work requests. The difference between a dependency and a working relationship is mutual respect. When you show genuine regard for someone else's constraints, they're more likely to find ways to support you.
Manage up strategically. When executives want faster results, your job isn't just to deliver - it's to set realistic expectations based on the actual availability of critical resources.
The Bottom Line
Cross-functional projects with dependent SMEs will always be challenging. These experts have leadership roles, competing priorities, and limited bandwidth. You can't change that reality.
What you can change is your approach. Instead of treating SMEs as obstacles to work around or resources to extract value from, treat them as partners whose constraints are as legitimate as your deadlines.
The project succeeded not because I found a way to force cooperation, but because I found a way to build genuine collaboration. And that made all the difference.