Governance in Public Projects: The Norwegian Case

Abstract

This book mainly focuses on governance through the lenses of private sector organizations and projects. In this chapter, we try to supplement and contrast this perspective with a description of governance in public sector projects and the differences these represent. One main point highlighted is the use of governance frameworks implemented to secure successful investment projects. Throughout this chapter, Norway will be used as the main example. The reason for this is not only that both authors are Norwegian with wide experience doing research on Norwegian public projects, but also because Norway is a pioneer in the area of governance of public projects, having introduced a governance scheme applied to all the largest statefunded investment projects across sectors, with external quality assurance of the planning documents as the essential element. The overall objective is to develop front-end management and project governance as an academic subject. Project governance as seen from the fi nancing party’s perspective has long been neglected in project management. In recent years, it has been widely recognized that there is a need for a more holistic and interdisciplinary orientation with a specifi c focus on the front-end stages of a project. This chapter aims at contributing to this by reporting the practices and results achieved in Norwegian public projects.