Verktækni - 2019, Qupperneq 100

100

Introduction
The context of this paper
This is the third and final paper in a series of articles headlined as “Project management in Iceland” on
the evolution of project management and the project management profession in Iceland, which is a fast
evolving, developed, Nordic country. The first paper explored the history of project management in
Iceland, how project management has evolved as a profession, and the present situation in Iceland in
this regard. The second paper discussed the economic significance of projects within the Icelandic
economy in the context of present gross value added through project work, and how this has evolved in
recent decades. It also compared the situation in Iceland to that in Norway and Germany, where similar
research has taken place in recent years. This third and final paper, will explore the future, meaning how
the importance of project work might evolve within the Icelandic economy, how the project
management discipline might develop, and what major themes and trends might constitute to be the
most important ones in this evolution in the coming years.
Projectification, introduction of the term and what is known — in general
Before we dig deeper into the Icelandic reality, let us start with a short detour by looking at the concept
of projectification of society. The concept of projectification was introduced in a paper by Christophe
Midler in 1995, in which he discussed research into the evolution of the French car manufacturer
Renault between 1960 and 1990. This research showed that the success of the company increased over
this period, as it evolved from being a traditional, functional organisation into a more horizontal, matrix
organisation. Project managers were given more authority, and the application of project management
was introduced as a way of running the business. The organisation took steps in this period towards
becoming projectified. Midler et al. were the co-authors of another paper (Lundin, Midler and Wåhlin,
2015) on projectification, and how the projectification of organisations gradually influences societies in
such a way that they become projectified. The notion of projectification has thus emerged through the
years and projects have become a general form of work in organisations in all sectors of the economy.
Maylor et al. (2006) discussed the emerging notion of projectification and argued that the term
projectification has extended the definition of a project and emphasised that the establishment of
programmes and portfolios has become a mechanism for managing organisations.

An indication of increased projectification of society can be seen in the regular reports on project
management published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). A report from 2012 is based on interviews
with people in management positions in organisations all over the world. An overwhelming majority
considers project management to be a key success factor in any operation and a precondition for
growth. A comparison is given with a similar survey by PWC from 2004, showing how the project
management maturity of participating organisations has evolved in the period between 2004 and 2012.
The difference is striking—the maturity has increased considerably, and the organisations have become
more projectified through this period. In fact, the participants in the 2012 survey planned to increase
their maturity even more.