Issue 2022 no4 contents:

International experience shows that creating large infrastructure objects (as a rule, with state participation) is often accompanied by significant cost overruns. Importance of this issue is especially high due to responsibility for the use of public resources. The article reviews most recognized methods of the project risks evaluation that play a key role in assessing the total cost of large and long-term projects. Approaches of international organizations, official documents of selected developed countries and requirements for Russian infrastructure projects with state funding are compared. Particular attention is paid to a comprehensive quantitative risk evaluation, which is not sufficiently represented in the Russian official methodology, based on Monte-Carlo simulation modelling. The study considers some practical aspects of applying this method for conditional cost estimation. As an illustration, a model calculation of the impact of risks on the indicators of one of the latest PPP infrastructure projects (CRR-1) is given.

The development of strategic planning in Russia using program-targeted budgeting approaches, the adoption of effective managerial decisions in the public sector determines the relevance of the problem of improving the efficiency of projects and programs implemented mainly at the expense of the state budget. The importance of these issues is growing due to the scale of the tasks solved through government programs and national projects, significant amounts of resources allocated for their implementation in the presence of budgetary constraints in the context of global instability and a significant level of uncertainty. An analysis of the domestic regulatory legal, methodological framework governing the development of national projects, international experience in project management, shows that the assessment of the quality of project development is not sufficiently carried out and methodologically supported. At the same time, the success and efficiency of the project is largely determined by the quality of the development plan for its implementation. The article defines general principles and proposes a model for assessing the quality of the development of national and federal projects. Based on the approbation of the proposed tools, shortcomings in the planning of national and federal projects were identified, proposals were made to improve the methodological support for the development of plans for their implementation. It is concluded that the implementation of project quality assessment procedures will improve the planning of state projects, including through increased performance discipline, a more balanced and thoughtful approach of developers to drafting projects. The combination of a formalized state assessment and independent public expertise will ensure a high degree of objectivity in the audit of project plans and will help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their implementation.

The article contains the first experience of applying the theory of the organization's life cycle to the study of the organizational dynamics of a specific federal state body – the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. The author identifies five stages in its development (autonomy, expansion, implosion, optimization and a new identity). The allocation of each stage is justified by the focus on solving one or more strategically important problems for the development of the organization, the resolution of which takes the organization to a fundamentally new level of development. In relation to the research focus, the following problems are identified: overcoming the "initial threshold of survival" and gaining independence; the struggle for expanding competencies; increasing the necessary diversity of management (development of internal structure); eliminating the ambiguity of management (de-bureaucratization); forming one's own identity. Using this model, the author substantiates the hypothesis that the stages of  each organization’s life cycle may differ from universal models, be inherent only to this organization and reflect the specifics of its development. The article shows that there are often no clear boundaries between these stages, and they can actually overlap each other. Based on the analysis, a forecast of the prospects for the development of the organization has been suggested.

The article puts forward a hypothesis about the difference between digitalization and management based on big data (hereinafter referred to as BD); it is assumed that these are stages of the same process. The transition from digitalization to BD-driven decisions is perceived as a kind of "leap" in public administration. Authors set the research task of identifying the key differences between these stages, as well as determining the reasons for the transition from one to the other. To do this, we carry out an analysis of the implementation of BD-driven solutions in public administration during the COVID-19 period, with a focus on the regional level. The analysis is based on the multiple streams theory. The case-study method was used to compare the selected regions. At this stage of the study, a gap in the development of the digital infrastructure in the Russian regions was revealed – a situation where only rich regions can carry out their original solutions, having the opportunity to invest in advance in the development of digital infrastructure, training and original management solutions. As a result of the conducted research, the absence of original digital solutions in the regions was noted. An alternative to using a BD-driven policy is simple digitalization, by which we mean either imitation solutions or blind copying of technological solutions offered by the federal center. In order to switch to BD-driven management, regional administrations need to accumulate expertise, experience in implementing successful digital projects, and make investments in the development of technological infrastructure and training.

The article discusses the specifics of implementing federal projects and programs in different regions and the regional project "Creating a unified digital circuit in health care based on the unified state health information system EGISZ" in Tomsk region in particular.  We used methods of document analysis (reports on the performance of executive authorities, regional and federal statistics); comparative analysis, in-depth informalized interviews with doctors of medical institutions inTomsk. The selected methods made it possible to compare the planned digitalization indicators with the figures of the current statistics; to identify the lagging areas and, based on opinions of the main actors of the process - doctors; to establish the reasons for the lag in digitalization by individual indicators, as well as the general attitude of doctors to the process itself. The study revealed a "digital paradox" which is that, for all the convenience of electronic services, a physician's work is impossible without their physical counterpart, such as a paper patient record. Analysis of the interviews showed that the main reasons for this paradox are lack of confidence in the reliability and efficiency of the unified information system, outdated equipment for the doctor's workplace, and slow Internet connections. In healthcare, the issue of a single unified platform, which does not yet exist, has become particularly relevant: individual medical institutions are experimenting with medical systems, choosing the most appropriate ones for specific tasks. Private clinics, however, are not yet ready to assume the costs of maintaining medical information systems. This leads to a slowdown in the process of creating a common database in which a doctor from any medical institution could access a patient's medical history.

The authors conclude that digital paradoxes arise as a reaction to the difficulties of the digitalization process and will lose their relevance as it develops. The process itself is welcomed by doctors, they see its benefits and prospects.

The concept of "smart city" is one of the most popular in the practice of urban management around the world. It has been adopted at the federal management level as one of the leading ones for Russian cities. The problem lies in the objectification of the concept in the strategies of socio-economic development of cities. In addition, each concept, including the "smart city" has a variety of implementation models. There are technocratic (rating), triple, quarter spiral, etc. The purpose of the work is to determine the types of models for the implementation of the "smart city" concept in the strategies of socio-economic development of large Russian cities. The focus of the research is the model of the quarter spiral, which received its author's continuation and refinement as a subject through the strengthening of the nature of its sociality. To achieve this goal, a content analysis of the strategies of socio-economic development of cities in 20 major cities of the Russian Federation was carried out. As a result, it can be argued that the concept of a "smart city" is not represented in all strategies of large cities. Where it is stated, the prevailing type of model for the implementation of the concept is the triple helix model (consumer model). The presence of elements of the subject model in strategic documents seems promising.