Ondanks het grote aantal repetitieve, kleine activiteiten dat wordt uitgevoerd voor publieke opdrachtgevers, ontbreekt het zowel in de praktijk als in de wetenschappelijke literatuur aan inzicht in de succesfactoren van dit type opgaven. Dit beperkt de mogelijkheden tot het doorvoeren van relevante verbeteringen ten aanzien van de samenwerking en de eigen rol van de publieke en private organisaties hierin. Dit onderzoek heeft zich daarom gericht op de samenwerking van waterschappen en marktpartijen specifiek bij kleinschalige repetitieve werkzaamheden.
Het onderzoek bestaat uit de analyse van portfolio's van waterschappen en interviews met zowel waterschapsmedewerkers als marktpartijen.

Uit de analyse van inkooporders blijkt dat repetitive werkzaamheden kunnen worden onderverdeeld in vijf typen, waarvan werkzaamheden aan watergangen de meest voorkomende zijn. Het inzicht in deze activiteiten en hun financiële omvang is van cruciaal belang voor optimalisatie.

Het onderzoek identificeert de elementen in de samenwerking tussen waterschappen en marktpartijen die bijdragen aan efficiëntere uitvoering van repetitive werkzaamheden: inzicht in de markt, bundeling door opdrachtgever(s) in relatie tot ondernemerschap bij de opdrachtnemer(s), communicatie, lerend vermogen, en formele en informele contractmanagement.

Dit onderzoek draagt bij aan het optimaliseren van de samenwerking tussen waterschappen en marktpartijen in repetitive werkzaamheden, wat leidt tot efficiëntere en effectievere uitvoering van deze taken in de waterbouwsector.

Although a considerable amount of literature has addressed the public procurement in the construction industry, still little is known about procurement in small and repetitive activities. In practice, however, public clients are often involved in repetitive tasks such as maintenance activities. Dutch water boards, regional governmental bodies responsible for providing water management services, are the focus of this study. For this research, three main procurement documents of the water boards were performed using content analysis. The aim is to evaluate these documents and to identify the typology of the repetitive activities and the procurement volume of these tasks from a portfolio perspective of the public client. Most of the contractors/suppliers involved in these activities are local Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The findings of the study indicate that insights into the typologies of these repetitive works and their expected volume over time delivers crucial value for the public procurer. Given the amount of repetitive works procured by public clients, creating such an insight to both clients as well as contractors can ultimately increase efficiency and improve investment opportunities.

Though different forms of public–private partnerships exist, in the organizational structure of most forms a public and a private project organization can be derived, resulting in two collaborating project organizations. The literature on project management however mostly considers one project organization. The literature on public–private partnerships considers the public part of the organization mostly as ‘the client’. This research focuses on the relationships between public and private organizations: the two collaborating project organizations, the relationship with their parent organizations, and with external actors. Exploratory interviews in three cases uncovered five mechanisms leading to tensions between project partners: ambiguity, conflict of interest, triangular relationships, unclear purpose and organizational context.

Purpose - The authors argue that public project managers do not consider the iron triangle (cost, quality and schedule) primary important in measuring the success of their projects. To investigate which success criteria are important to public project managers, the authors interviewed 26 Dutch project managers who are employed by the government and who are responsible for managing infrastructural projects. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach - In this research the Q-methodology is applied. Q-methodology helps to find for correlations between subjects across a sample of variables. Q-factor analysis reduces the individual viewpoints down to a few factors. A factor can be seen as the mathematical representation of an "average" perspective shared by a group of people. Findings - Findings are based on the individual rankings of 19 success criteria; the authors distinguished three common perspectives: the holistic and cooperative leader, the socially engaged, ambiguous manager and the executor of a top-down assignment. In none of the perspectives the iron triangle criteria formed the top three to measure project success. Research limitations/implications - The research results may have a national character. The way project success is perceived by public project managers may be culture dependent. For this the authors expand the research to other countries in the near future. Practical implications - This paper contributes to the understanding of the public project manager by their private collaboration partners, like consultants, engineers and contractors. This will help them to understand their client and contribute to better collaboration in projects. Originality/value - This paper shows that the difference in work attitude and value frame in the public sector leads to a specific view on project success.

Infrastructure projects - such as the construction of tunnels and bridges or the (re)construction of roads and highways – are always performed to add quality to society. In The Netherlands, these projects are most often financed by the government, from local to national level, and constructed by private contractors. Public and private partners increasingly recognize the importance of cooperation to ensure successful execution of projects. However, the partnership arrangements made at strategic level are still difficult to ensure at tactical level, where the project is controlled. This study focuses on the tactical level and specifically on the perspective of the public project managers. It is investigated what they consider project success and how the project management team operates to control the project processes. The main result of this study is the public Value Chain in which the processes of the combined project organization are captured. Recommendations are made on the primary and secondary processes that binds the partners to each other. The public Value Chain will help collaborating partners to position their specific contribution to the project outcomes more clearly. Practitioners are encouraged to use the public Value Chain to organize their project activities and discuss the contribution of both public and private parent organizations to an efficient process. It can help partners to execute their specific contribution to the value they are creating. This will further optimize collaboration between public and private partners.

Public and private project managers contribute to the success of Large Infrastructure Projects. Considering the public client, so far researchers have been looking at him in a passive role with respect to project success. The focus of this exploratory research is what public project managers who are actively involved in the project, consider project success. Using Q-methodology, we identify four viewpoints in the respondent group, consisting of managers from five North-Western European countries and the specific success criteria accompanying these viewpoints. Within each viewpoint, the managers have the same vision on the ranking of project success criteria. Next to the conventional project manager, we distinguish the product driven manager, the parent oriented manager and the manager with a stakeholder focus. In Large Infrastructure Projects, where public and private partners collaborate, awareness of these different perspectives will help to understand the motives of the public project manager.