Formation and development of project management at the federal level in Russia

Abstract

The implementation of project management in the Russian Federation has been going on for a long time, but with great difficulties. One of the reasons of it is the lack of reflection of the successes and failures of priority and national projects. The purpose of the paper is to develop an approach to assessing the achievement of federal projects management. We used both quantitative (e.g. standardization, calculation of growth rates, correlation analysis, statistical analysis) and qualitative methods (e.g. classification, benchmarking, comparative legal analysis). We identified three periods of project management: 2006–2013, 2016–2018 and 2019–2024, and determined their similarities and specifics. As a result we proved the gradual approximation of the projects structure to the “classical” standards of project management (PMBoK, PRINCE, etc.), and the growth of their maturity level. Wherein, the prioritization of projects does not take into account the public expectations. In the first period, projects were initiated primarily in crisis sectors of the national economy, and in the last, in successful ones. A significant part of the projects` goals is not subject to statistical evaluation and was poorly integrated with government programs. The projects` goals in most cases are overly ambitious and do not correlate with socio-economic development trends. We empirically confirmed the hypothesis about increasing projects funding during periods of economic growth. Also we established a set of organizational, legal and financial proposals. Our conclusions are included in the current scientific discussion on the problems of improving project management.