The Status of Project Management within a City Hall of a European Capital

Abstract

We live in times of changes. The credit-crunch has affected businesses and organisations all over the world, its consequences being layoffs, cutbacks in projects due to lack of funding amongst other things. The municipality of Reykjavik is no exception; it is one of the largest workplaces in Iceland with operations that are diverse and complex. Employees are well educated specialists and many have studied management. No PMO is in place, and therefore there is no standardized set of practices and procedures regarding the preparation and execution of projects, nor a centralized documentation of projects completed (or failed). The Human Resource System does not list the abilities and education of its employees and no formal knowledge management is practiced. The level of project management maturity is uncertain and this paper attempts to give an overview of the maturity level of the municipality. Finally a suggestion is made on how project- and knowledge management might be strengthened in order to increase support and cooperation between offices and departments, enhance project management consciousness and -skills and improve the efficiency of municipal organisations.