Improving Project Capabilities within the UK Public Sector.

Research by Akinyo Ola

University of Brighton

Over the next ten years in the United Kingdom, there is an estimated total infrastructure investment of over £600 billion, including nearly 700 projects, programmes and other investments. However, due to the projected large scale of the planned expenditures, the demand for project management professionals is set to increase significantly within the public sector resulting in major projects at risk of paying a premium for the skills and capability gap.

This research will investigate the effectiveness of the existing knowledge management strategies to develop, manage and transfer project knowledge and experiences within the public sector. When completed, this research will enable public sector organisations to identify and track capability requirements needed at various stages of the project lifecycle.

A multiple case study method was adopted to explore differences between specific cases understudy to draw comparisons within and across the selected departments in the UK public sector. A preliminary capability landscape of the Public sector was developed to identify where capabilities exist within the public sector and provide an overview of the project lifecycle activities from policy formulation to project implementation. From the existing gaps in the literature, a conceptual framework was developed to identify routines activities, learning mechanisms and factors that facilitate or hinder knowledge management and capability development within the public sector.

The result of the qualitative data collection was mapped into the conceptual framework to identify themes and sub-themes to frame the interview questions and other data collection sources. This approach will enable the researcher to adjust and modify the capability landscape and the theoretical framework proposed.