<p>The aim of this thesis is to explore possible differences between public and private companies’ way to manage projects. In order to analyze the managerial aspects, we have studied the project of a new payment system implemented at the public-transport organization Upplands Lokaltrafik (UL). The project enables mobile payment by text message (SMS). Most theory concerning the management of projects is developed for private companies. It is therefore of great interest to explore whether that theory is applicable to the SMS-project conducted by a public company. Within the theory of project management, we have chosen to focus on the concept of process orientation in order to describe the project and the parties involved. To specify the different stages of the work process we have used Deming’s cycle. The cycle describes the iterative workflow of a project by the four stages; Plan (Planning the project), Do (Implementing the project), Study(Study the effects of the implementation) and Act (Act upon the results of the feedback). The model’s four stages are represented by equally large shares in the optimal cycle, however, the most common situation for private companies is that the Do part is larger than the other parts and the Study and Act parts are seldom employed. The decision-making process in public companies is more complex due to their organizational structure, which in UL’s case implies that the project process is different to that of private companies. With this in mind, the process of evaluation is more difficult to conduct. The finding of this study is that the public and private companies have somewhat different management techniques, which we have observed in particular while studying the SMS-project. Nevertheless, the SMS-project is run with some similar characteristics to a private company, which we have seen has affected the outcome of the project negatively in the sense that they have failed to use the process orientation fully. UL would therefore benefit from using process-orientation techniques such as evaluation and feedback in a greater extent in upcoming projects.</p><p> </p>

The aim of this thesis is to explore possible differences between public and private companies’ way to manage projects. In order to analyze the managerial aspects, we have studied the project of a new payment system implemented at the public-transport organization Upplands Lokaltrafik (UL). The project enables mobile payment by text message (SMS). Most theory concerning the management of projects is developed for private companies. It is therefore of great interest to explore whether that theory is applicable to the SMS-project conducted by a public company. Within the theory of project management, we have chosen to focus on the concept of process orientation in order to describe the project and the parties involved. To specify the different stages of the work process we have used Deming’s cycle. The cycle describes the iterative workflow of a project by the four stages; Plan (Planning the project), Do (Implementing the project), Study(Study the effects of the implementation) and Act (Act upon the results of the feedback). The model’s four stages are represented by equally large shares in the optimal cycle, however, the most common situation for private companies is that the Do part is larger than the other parts and the Study and Act parts are seldom employed. The decision-making process in public companies is more complex due to their organizational structure, which in UL’s case implies that the project process is different to that of private companies. With this in mind, the process of evaluation is more difficult to conduct. The finding of this study is that the public and private companies have somewhat different management techniques, which we have observed in particular while studying the SMS-project. Nevertheless, the SMS-project is run with some similar characteristics to a private company, which we have seen has affected the outcome of the project negatively in the sense that they have failed to use the process orientation fully. UL would therefore benefit from using process-orientation techniques such as evaluation and feedback in a greater extent in upcoming projects.