The impact of the rural policy and design guidance on the effectiveness of project management

Abstract

Spatial planning policies are meant to forward plan processes of social, economic, and environmental change which bring about socio-spatial developments. Project management is a complex activity aimed to achieve the feasible completion of projects within the forecasted costs and the expected time schedule. On the other hand, planning policies are prepared purposely with long-term effects, and they are required to be applicable in a scenario which has potentially changed unexpectedly. For these reasons, planning policies need to be flexible enough to apply to all sites, and they do not become outdated in a short period of time. These characteristics of planning policy conflict with the principles of project management, yet the project management of a construction project is highly dependent on planning policy. This research addresses the tensions between project management and spatial planning, and it focuses on the Rural Policy and Design Guidance (2014), by way of an example of a spatial planning policy, as a primary policy document which manages spatial development in the outside development zones of the Maltese Islands. The literature review is based on the international and local contexts of project management and spatial planning. The qualitative research is focused on semi-structured interviews with a wide range of stakeholders in the spatial planning sphere, and the review of case studies. A thematic analysis approach is adopted to analyse the qualitative data. The findings of this research show that project management needs to adapt to the flexibility of planning policy to ensure the successful completion of projects. On the other hand, spatial planning policy needs to be more robust, albeit retaining the required flexibility, by addressing the concerns raised by weak wording and subjective interpretation of the same planning policy which can result in either project success or project failure. Thus, the research expands the theoretical understanding of planning policy, thereby suggesting its improvement, including the need for further training of policy-makers and decision-takers, with the aim of project management success.