Analysis of Project Management Process Groups in urban renewal in the city of São Paulo

Urban Renewal Projects (URPs) are concerned with degraded areas or areas that have some historical relevance where projects have been put in place to improve the social environment, the economy, infrastructure recovery and expansion of public areas, public transport and social housing. In urban development, public companies are created to manage these highly complex projects, supported by specific legal instruments. Currently, the average life cycle of these URPs is between 15 and 30 years, from conception to a project’s completion. This long term process has consequences, such as obsolescence of projects, loss of objectivity, loss of control and loss of the historical value of the project. This paper studies the public company responsible for managing the URPs in São Paulo, analysing the management processes, organising them into groups of project management processes recommended in ‘A guide to the project management body of knowledge’, 5th edn, and identifying existing weaknesses in the processes, with the aim of developing an improved model for URP management. This study revealed the following: the lack of a responsible person or department to manage the project throughout its life cycle; a need for greater autonomy for SP Urbanismo (São Paulo’s public company), which is São Paulo’s public company; and a lack of efficiency in the controlling processes of the projects developed by this company. This paper is part of broader and more detailed research constituting an ongoing master’s degree dissertation in the Post-graduate Civil Engineering programme at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo-EPUSP.