Project management is becoming increasingly complex as a direct effect of the technological turbulence, the transversality of the domains on which the projects focus and the dimensions of the project initiatives themselves. The complexity of the projects is therefore a multidimensional and articulated space that requires specific skills and proven skills. Research and development projects in particular, even more those financed from public funds, are at the top of the complexity since they add to the normal critical ones those connected: to the uncertainty of the results, since these must be the result of research whose results are all the more uncertain how much more research is frontier; the difficulty of estimating times, costs and resources with reference to objectives to be achieved which are difficult to specify; the criticality of the management of highly qualified personnel and development teams; to find suitable skills for the research to be conducted; looking for sources of funding; the preparation of applications for funded calls and the reporting of the activities carried out, which notoriously require the compilation of forms and forms that are extremely complex and often distant from company practices; cash problems that can be determined during implementation.
SER&Practices was born as a subject suited to industrial research and the preparation and implementation of complex research projects. He immediately gained prominent skills in this area, creating an internal Project Management Office, a structure responsible for managing internal projects which, subsequently, thanks to his successes, also began to operate on behalf of third parties in favor of numerous customers, for which it actually implements a turnkey management of project initiatives.
Over time, the Company has adopted its own approach to project management which, inspired by the PMBOK of the Project Management Institute and focused on research and development projects, involves the use of ad hoc processes of Start-up, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Control and Closing, as well as document templates, checklists and work management tools. It internally develops skills in the three main areas of Project Management, namely, Technical Project Management, Leadership and Strategic and Business Management, skills that it continuously updates thanks also to the collaboration of some of its founding members with the Project Management Institute Southern Italy Chapter (PMI -SIC) and the joint organization and participation in dissemination and professional updating events promoted by the PMI.
The company also develops skills useful for the introduction of Project Management in diversified production contexts, typically represented by small and medium-sized enterprises that intend to enhance their management skills. In this context, it also has its own Lean approach to project management called PMStart which streamlines planning to the extreme by focusing on 4 focal elements, the What, When Who and How (WWWH), making it particularly suitable for Startups or immature contexts. PMStart can, if necessary, be instrumented through tools to help manage software projects.
This area of competence also becomes strategic on the market also in light of the current regulatory framework which, acknowledging the importance of knowing how to decompose and face today’s complexity, pushes towards the acquisition of skills and competences aimed at project management, such as for example, the case of UNI 11648: 2016 standards – Requirements of knowledge, skills and competence of the Project Manager and UNI ISO 21500: 2013 – Guide to project management (Project Management) and the new Public Contracts Code pursuant to Legislative Decree 50/2016 and of the ANAC Guidelines n.3 / 2016 and subsequent updates that require for the RUP (Sole Manager of the Procedure) to possess “adequate training in the field of Project Management”.
The services provided by the company within this area are, among others, the following:
definition of the project idea, search for sources of funding, drafting of the project or application, assistance in relations with funding bodies, planning of the initiative, support during the execution phase, monitoring, control and closure of the project, Project Office services, targeted training for CAPM and PMP certification preparation
