Project Management in Italian Public Administrations, the Decennial of “Il Project Manager” Magazine, PM Expo® 2019 is coming
REPORT
By Massimo Pirozzi
International Correspondent
Rome, Italy
INTRODUCTION
This fifth Regional Report focuses on an overview about Project Management in Italian Public Administrations, in which an increasing success of project management discipline goes together with a context that both is rapidly changing and still maintains some degree of uncertainty, on the decennial of “Il Project Manager” magazine, a traditional, constant, and important reference for Italian professionals and practitioners in project management, and on next PM Expo® 2019, the major Event in Italy dedicated to Project Management, which is being organized by the major Italian Association of Project Management, the “Istituto Italiano di Project Management” (Italian Institute of Project Management, ISIPM for short), and which will take place on November 8, this year too in Rome.
WHAT IS GOING ON FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN ITALIAN GOVERNMENT?
While the importance of Project Management in Italian Public Administrations is more and more growing, and increasing numbers of officers acquire project management certifications (in largest measure ISIPM’s ones), some issues are not completely specified yet, and this leads to a certain degree of uncertainty. I asked to Federico Minelle, a major expert of Project Management in Public Administrations, an ISIPM’s Honorary Member and Member of the Scientific Committee, and a Member of PMWJ’s Team, to share his point of view with us.
“The context hereby described is my viewpoint, based on witnessed news, but in front of an unforeseen near future. This environment is mostly relevant to civil works (e.g. infrastructures) and hopefully less to ICT projects. In addition, Italian political scenario is changing, and this will probably have a significant impact, because public projects and related procurement are big and debated issues. Present status of government rules is the following. The government Authority against corruption (ANAC) was in charge to deliver new rules for public procurement, mainly to contrast corruption, therefore 2-3 years ago, along with many other important rules, it prescribed that every governmental officer in charge of large procurement contracts must have been trained on Project Management: see Guideline n. 3 – Chapter 4, 7 (www.anticorruzione.it/portal/rest/jcr/repository/collaboration/Digital%20Assets/anacdocs/Attivita/Atti/determinazioni/2017/del.1007.2017.det.linee.guida.n.3.2017agg.pdf).
The Project Management approach to be considered was not specified, being hopefully a “de-facto” professional framework. It was mentioned that this framework has to be compliant with national and international standard, therefore it can be easily argued that these standards are the ISO 21500:2012 guideline (Guidance on project management), the Italian standards UNI ISO 21500:2013, and UNI 11648:2016, which allows a third-party certification on project manager competencies, and, eventually, other standards as PMI’s PMBOK® Guide or IPMA®’s ICB 4.0. In any case, a big effort in PM training was already spent by government organizations, using different sources: among them the National Administration School (SNA paf.sna.gov.it/scheda_corso.html?cid=1691), academic institutions, and other highly qualified professional trainers.
But a couple of months ago, the ANAC President, who was appointed since the establishment of the Authority itself, probably for the various critiques he received by Government in charge (obviously not on PM matters) unexpectedly resigned. Former Government promised to develop new rules on the subject, trying to simplify some constraints on required procurement procedures and contractor profiles, and, as a matter of fact, the former Ministry of Infrastructures and Transports asked for public opinion about this subject on a dedicated website https://regolamentounico.mit.gov.it/ .
As ISIPM (Italian Institute of Project Management), we are asking to better qualify public officer both for the procurement phase and the implementation phases. Enrico Mastrofini, President of ISIPM, synthetizes: “I am, of course, happy and proud, since several hundreds of managers and directors that belong to Italian Public Administrations selected our project management training path, and I would stress both the importance and the opportunity of acquiring credentials in project management that are released by those well-known, and globally recognized, organizations, as international PMI and IPMA, and, in Italy, ISIPM, which act strictly in coherence with International and/or National Standards…
More…
To read entire report, click here for (English) or (Italiano)
How to cite this report: Pirozzi, M. (2019). August 2019 PM Report from Italy, PM World Journal, Vol. VIII, Issue VIII, September. Available online at: https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/pmwj85-Sep2019-Pirozzi-5th-Report-from-Italy-English.pdf
About the Author
Massimo Pirozzi
Rome, Italy
Massimo Pirozzi, MSc cum laude, Electronic Engineering, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Principal Consultant, Project Manager, and Educator. He is a Member and the Secretary of the Executive Board, a Member of the Scientific Committee, and an accredited Master Teacher, of the Istituto Italiano di Project Management (Italian Institute of Project Management). He is certified as a Professional Project Manager, as an Information Security Management Systems Lead Auditor, and as an International Mediator. He is a Researcher, a Lecturer, and an Author about Stakeholder Identification and Management, Relationship Management, Complex Projects Management, and Project Management X.0.
Massimo has a wide experience in managing large and complex projects in national and international contexts, and in managing relations with public and private organizations, including multinational companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, research institutes, and non-profit organizations. He worked successfully in several sectors, including Defense, Security, Health, Education, Cultural Heritage, Transport, Gaming, and Services to Citizens. He was also, for many years, a Top Manager in ICT Industry, and an Adjunct Professor in Organizational Psychology. He is registered as an Expert of the European Commission, and as an Expert of the Italian Public Administrations.
Massimo Pirozzi serves as an international Correspondent in Italy for the PM World Journal. He can be contacted at pirozzi@isipm.org
To see other works by Massimo Pirozzi, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/massimo-pirozzi/
