Project Management Complexities in Municipal Projects

The existing frameworks for managing projects and achieving project management maturity are contextualized in relatively stable business organizations, whose primary strategic intent is the creation of shareholder value through improving profitability and competitive advantage. This is not always the intent for municipal projects.

Municipal projects have the added complications of not always having easily identifiable stakeholders, being multifaceted and having timing and budgetary constraints that may be defined according more to political exigencies than by purely profit motives.

By using a three-phased approach that looks at the project intent, project organization and the project environment to describe the context of municipal projects at the front end planning stage, this research aims at demonstrating that the complexities of implementing projects at a North American municipality can be better understood and managed.

The key finding of this research is that a six-step process can provide a robust platform for understanding the particular context of municipality projects more completely and for identifying the appropriate project management tools that can be used to address the specific situation.

The primary contribution of this research is that it presents a framework to help practitioners in the municipal project world better understand the complex world in which they have to manage projects.