A study on the perceived strength and weaknesses of public project governance in Iceland

Abstract

Through time, public projects in Iceland have frequently exceeded their cost estimates and as expensive public projects are planned, it is important to improve the situation. Here the application of public project governance principles within the public domain is studied. The first step was defining public project governance and what constitutes good public project governance in the literature. Subsequently a recent survey of the perceived quality of project governance was analysed where managers in Icelandic public organization answered list of questions regarding the compliance of project governance practises within their organisations against best practises. The analysis aimed at identifying a holistic view of the strengths and weaknesses of how public project governance principles are applied in Iceland.Overall, the perception of the participants on how project governance is applied is positive. Some aspects of public project governance appeared to be in better shape than others, including strategy. Possibly due to good information flow in the small Icelandic public sector. Other aspect where lacking. The results indicated that risk management, project management offices and cost-benefit analysis were the weaknesses of public project governance in Iceland. It was recommended to improve knowledge of risk management and project management and use Norwegian governance as a model.