I am working on an ongoing project which spans over the course of several years. The project has moved to the stage where the product we're building has customers.
Our management structure is the matrix style where project managers work with functional managers to find resources for the project. The team is also self-organizing in that people will sometimes volunteer their time to help out with a specific area in their expertise.
The challenge sometimes is that the other departments have their own goals and deadlines. The general rule of thumb is that they provide services to internal clients, but sometimes their customers take precedence.
This is defined as a risk to the growth of the project and is documented, but what is the procedure for handling high risk involving another team's conflicting goals?