The importance of project management competences: a case study in Public Administration

Abstract

Public administration is increasingly implementing new management practic-es borrowed from the private sector with the aim of improving quality ser-vice. Public funded projects have specific characteristics, namely regulatory, in resources usage and accountability, that may be related in different ways to existing competence models. However, it is generally understood that pro-ject management practices can improve quality and effectiveness in public funded projects. This paper presents a study on the evaluation of compe-tences of project team members of public funded projects in the public ad-ministration in Brazil. The research methodology employed document analy-sis and a survey with team members directly involved in programs and pro-jects in Metropolitan Region of Manaus and in the Social and Environmental Program PROSAMIM. The conclusions indicate that, although project teams of public funded projects strive to achieve project goals, there are still sever-al competence gaps in elementary project management practices. Future work will focus on the development of a competency model that aims to im-prove project success in the public sector.