3.37 Simonsen, J., and J.D. Scheuer (2016): “Accreditation and Participatory Design: An Effects-Driven Road to Quality Development Projects”, in J. Pries Heje and P. Svejvig (Eds),: Project Management for Achieving Change, Roskilde University Press, pp. 11-31. Paper presented at the 2nd Danish Project Management Research Conference, June 8-9, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Abstract

This paper presents a soft project management paradigm approach based on participatory design to assuring values and benefits in public projects. For more than a decade, quality development in the Danish healthcare sector has been managed with an accreditation system known as the Danish Quality Model (DQM). In 2015, in an attempt to reduce “bureaucratic process requirements” and “focus on specific goals and results,” the Danish government decided to discontinue this system (The Danish Ministry of Health, 2015, p. 2). In this paper, we introduce a participatory design approach known as effects-driven IT development and suggest how this approach may form a cornerstone of project management in a new quality-assurance program for the Danish healthcare sector.

Keywords:Participatory design, quality development, improvement, accreditation, effects-driven IT development, soft project management, value and benefit realization management.