Exploring Projectification in the Public Sector: The Iron Triangle Revisited

Public projects are used to delivery policy objectives. In the United Kingdom (UK), the Major Projects Authority (MPA) estimated a whole life investment of £488 billion for 199 major public projects in 2014, only a small... [ view full abstract ]

Public projects are used to delivery policy objectives. In the United Kingdom (UK), the Major Projects Authority (MPA) estimated a whole life investment of £488 billion for 199 major public projects in 2014, only a small subset of the total number of UK public projects. The impact of public project failures puts the economic and social health of the nation at risk.

This paper informs the discourse on improving public project delivery by summarising a systematic literature review (SLR) exploring projectification in the public sector. The SLR, conducted in support of a doctoral thesis, considered over 225 articles and 100 government reports.

This paper establishes the organisational unit, rather than the project as the unit of analysis. Projectification of an organisational unit requires the development of new capabilities, whereby organisational practices are developed into routines, routines support capabilities, capabilities form core competencies, and competencies allow public organisations to successful delivery of policy intentions. The findings distinguish between the ‘capabilities required to change’ organisational form and the ‘capabilities of’ an organisational form.

The paper argues that publicness matters with public organisational unit operating within the context of a set of pubic principles: democratic engagement, transparency, hybridisation and societal transformation. Established project management paradigms such as the Iron Triangle and project management maturity are misdirecting in this context. Instead, the focus should be on inheriting or creating two sets of distinctive routines: one for project-based organising itself and one for creating new organisational forms.

Key words: publicness, capability, routines, actors, pace, project-based, PMO