Using the project approach in strategic planning of territorial development

Problem setting. Strategic planning for the development of territories has become particularly relevant in the context of implementing the reform of local self-government and territorial arrangement of power based on decentralization, and requires updating approaches to it, its methods and tools.

A project-based approach to implementing strategic priorities for local development contributes to improving the efficiency of local self-government bodies and effective change management in conditions of limited resources. With acceptance of resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 695 "on approval of the state regional development strategy for 2021-2027" on 05 August 2020, a new active stage of the project-based approach implementation has begun in Ukraine. It is during this period that most regional development strategies and strategies for the development of territorial communities are developed.

Recent research and publications analysis. Approaches to strategic planning of territorial development are of considerable interest to researchers from various scientific fields, in particular economics and public administration. The topical issues of using the project approach to improve performance have been studied mostly in the context of implementing strategies or strategic plans.

Highlighting previously unsettled parts of the general problem. Researchers do not pay attention to the issues of using the project approach for improvement exactly the process of preparing and developing strategic documents. The purpose of the article is to summarize the practice of applying the project approach to identify the advantages of using it to improve the process of strategic planning for the development of territories.

Paper main body. Strategic planning, which takes into account the conditions and factors of the internal and external environment, long-term priorities, which is based on a long-term vision of the development of the planning object and its competitive advantages, helps to develop and implement various state and local strategies and programs. The process of strategic planning consists in the sequential implementation of a number of stages that echo the processes inherent in project activities.

The process of strategic planning requires the participation of a temporary team of people, which also compares this activity to project work. The heads of strategic planning working groups and their members are actually project teams and project managers.

In project activities, special attention is paid to the management of stakeholders. For effective strategic planning of territorial development, in addition to ensuring representation of interested parties in working groups on strategic planning, it is necessary to analyze the content of their interests for coordination.

The analysis of scientific and methodological literature allowed us to identify "packages of works" that mainly make up the content of strategic planning for the development of the territories The final product of a set of such work packages is the development strategy (hereinafter referred to as the strategy):

1. Initiation: "Justification of the feasibility of developing a strategy"; "Formation of a "creative team" and its division into "action groups"; "Distribution of work areas into "action groups".
2. Analysis: "Identifying areas that need to be explored"; "Collecting statistical data and other necessary information"; "Conducting surveys of residents"; "Conducting expert surveys"; "Identifying problems and competitive advantages"; "Predicting risks".
3. Development of the draft strategy: "Defining the mission and goals"; "Defining development scenarios";" Specifying operational goals";" Disseminating information about the draft strategy";" Conducting a strategic environmental assessment of the document"; "Organizing and conducting public hearings"; "Developing a strategy implementation plan"; "Checking the feasibility of planned activities"; "Determining indicators by which the implementation of the strategy will be monitored".
4. Official adoption of the strategy: "Preparation of documentation (strategy and plan for its implementation)"; "Holding a session of the relevant council"; "Posting the strategy and plan for its implementation on the official website and distributing printed documents to interested parties".

The executives are assigned on the basis of the project approach to each of the items, which is convenient to do with the help of the project management tool – the responsibility matrix.

Conclusions of the research and prospects for further studies. The implementation of the project approach allows to eliminate a number of serious shortcomings associated with the implementation of strategic planning, such as repeatability, routine, formality of the planning process, which demotivates its participants and achieve the planned results in a shorter time, use limited resources more effectively, etc., allows you to create a creative environment and conditions for strategic thinking, joint discussion of problems and development opportunities. Strategy development can be successfully achieved within the framework of the project team's activities.

The areas of further research will be the search for effective approaches to solving the issues of forming and improving the project competencies of local government officials, as well as the introduction of smart specialization in the strategy of development of territorial communities of Ukraine.