PMFORUM Breaking News
Breaking News in the Project Management World
Friday, December 05, 2008
Project Management for Public Administration: Russ Archibald lectures in Rome at ISIPM
ISIPM, Italian Institute of Project Management, a not-for-profit association based in Rome (Italy), organized on 12-13 November 2008 two conferences, with Dr. Russell D. Archibald as keynote speaker. The focus was on the role of project management as leverage for developing and improving the performances of public administration (PA) and related organizations.
The first event, hosted in “Regione Lazio”, one of the 21 local governments ruling Italy at regional level, was introduced by ASAP, an agency devoted to PAs development, headed by Luigina Di Liegro, a Columbia University graduate. In the following all-day event organized at LUISS, one of most prestigious business schools in Italy, Archibald provided the same recipe for introducing project management in public institutions and relying on state-of-the-art maturity models, such as the “Prado method”. Nearly 950 people attended the Roman events, showing the interest of this discipline in public environment, from armed forces, to educational, health and sport related projects.
In his speech Dr. Archibald addressed the portfolio and strategy concepts which can provide administrations with governance tools for increasing their overall productivity and return to society. In this regard, projects – said Archibald - must be managed as investments and tracked through governance entities and life-cycles, similar to manufacturing industry, with specific objectives and strategies for the public sector. He then provided a 33-steps reference methodology that public stakeholders should follow and align to their organizations. This framework addresses some leading areas, such as vision, consensus and commitment, documentation of key objectives and strategies, planning and execution of specific projects.
"Projects," says Archibald, "translate strategies into actions and objectives into realities".
Finally the speaker presented the results of a research conducted in Brazil and based on the Prado maturity model, showing how the same method can be applied to several business sectors as well as public companies. Marco Gentili, chairman of the conference and officer of CNIPA, the Italian authority for IT development in PA, observed that the method could be suitable for testing in their environment and “time has come,” said Gentili, "to get most value from project management and cost-benefit analysis in public organizations".
In the crowed Luiss auditorium, over 700 attendees had further exposure to some successful case studies.
Gen. Paolo Rizzo, of Italian Air Force (IAF) and member of ISIPM Board, outlined the project to introduce PM culture and certification in IAF officers curriculum, alongside other managerial knowledge and skills. "This can happen from elementary to advanced level," said Rizzo, "the same as training of flying abilities for pilots".
Andrea Sica presented an outstanding application of program management by the Agency for the Winter Olympics Games in Turin (2006), where more than 20 new sport infrastructures were built on time and less than budgeted cost. In this case "the CIO (International Olympic Committee)," said Sica, "used to supervise the works only with the S-shaped earned value curve. Successful was our approach in providing continuous and independent control and validation activities to contractors; in addition our artifacts were appreciated for being friendly even by the environmentalists".
Another case study was reported by Maurizio Dal Maso, manager of Policlinico Umberto I of Rome, one of the largest and oldest health complexes in Italy, that will undergo a complete reconstruction. Silvana Abete, from the ministry of education, outlined the introduction of PRINCE2 for an evaluation method of school performances, and Col. Bruno Bartoloni, from Guardia di Finanza, the military corps of the Italian ministry of finance dealing with customs, excise and tax crimes, discussed a current project aimed to increase tax collection and decrease evasion.
Finally Eugenio Rambaldi, architect and president of ISIPM, exposed the aims and progress made by the association, since its constitution in 2005, for filling a gap and providing project management culture to larger audiences in information technology. “Also with reference to agile methods, in addition to public institutions, universities, and stakeholders, who,” commented Rambaldi, “may never become true project managers, but can nevertheless influence very much important projects and even their existence in our society”.
To this aim and to respond to increasing project management demand at various level, the Institute has recently set up a new “light” certification, which aims to be an entry level yet formal and motivating approach to the discipline, thus introducing further certification paths such as PMI and IPMA’s. In fact ISIPM is also R.E.P. (PMI) and can provide both early and mature exposure to project management.
"We are very proud," said Rambaldi, "that the open ‘Archibald days’ in Rome have facilitated so much coming and have given occasion for all fond and PM certified attendees to meet together".
The Italian Institute of Project Management (ISIPM) is a non-profit association founded in October 2005 in Rome to create a new entity in project management area with specific reference to ICT (Information & Communication Technology), project management within Public Administration and the new Agile approaches in project management. The board of directors of the Institute includes professionals from different fields: consulting, big Italian and international private companies, army, government, etc. ISIPM promotes the growth of project management culture among all stakeholders, in their different roles: customers, suppliers, sponsors, consultants, etc.. by using processes based on best practices and methodologies already recognized worldwide (PMI, IPMA, Prince2) and on those defined "agile", particularly appealing for managing the so-called "extreme projects". More information about ISIPM (now in Italian) can be found at www.isipm.org.
Photos courtesy of ISIPM
In his speech Dr. Archibald addressed the portfolio and strategy concepts which can provide administrations with governance tools for increasing their overall productivity and return to society. In this regard, projects – said Archibald - must be managed as investments and tracked through governance entities and life-cycles, similar to manufacturing industry, with specific objectives and strategies for the public sector. He then provided a 33-steps reference methodology that public stakeholders should follow and align to their organizations. This framework addresses some leading areas, such as vision, consensus and commitment, documentation of key objectives and strategies, planning and execution of specific projects.
"Projects," says Archibald, "translate strategies into actions and objectives into realities".
Finally the speaker presented the results of a research conducted in Brazil and based on the Prado maturity model, showing how the same method can be applied to several business sectors as well as public companies. Marco Gentili, chairman of the conference and officer of CNIPA, the Italian authority for IT development in PA, observed that the method could be suitable for testing in their environment and “time has come,” said Gentili, "to get most value from project management and cost-benefit analysis in public organizations".
In the crowed Luiss auditorium, over 700 attendees had further exposure to some successful case studies.
Andrea Sica presented an outstanding application of program management by the Agency for the Winter Olympics Games in Turin (2006), where more than 20 new sport infrastructures were built on time and less than budgeted cost. In this case "the CIO (International Olympic Committee)," said Sica, "used to supervise the works only with the S-shaped earned value curve. Successful was our approach in providing continuous and independent control and validation activities to contractors; in addition our artifacts were appreciated for being friendly even by the environmentalists".
Another case study was reported by Maurizio Dal Maso, manager of Policlinico Umberto I of Rome, one of the largest and oldest health complexes in Italy, that will undergo a complete reconstruction. Silvana Abete, from the ministry of education, outlined the introduction of PRINCE2 for an evaluation method of school performances, and Col. Bruno Bartoloni, from Guardia di Finanza, the military corps of the Italian ministry of finance dealing with customs, excise and tax crimes, discussed a current project aimed to increase tax collection and decrease evasion.
Finally Eugenio Rambaldi, architect and president of ISIPM, exposed the aims and progress made by the association, since its constitution in 2005, for filling a gap and providing project management culture to larger audiences in information technology. “Also with reference to agile methods, in addition to public institutions, universities, and stakeholders, who,” commented Rambaldi, “may never become true project managers, but can nevertheless influence very much important projects and even their existence in our society”.
To this aim and to respond to increasing project management demand at various level, the Institute has recently set up a new “light” certification, which aims to be an entry level yet formal and motivating approach to the discipline, thus introducing further certification paths such as PMI and IPMA’s. In fact ISIPM is also R.E.P. (PMI) and can provide both early and mature exposure to project management.
"We are very proud," said Rambaldi, "that the open ‘Archibald days’ in Rome have facilitated so much coming and have given occasion for all fond and PM certified attendees to meet together".
Photos courtesy of ISIPM
