Abstract

During the last decade, the need for an effective and efficient public system has become increasingly important to many countries. For endemic reasons, private entities have always been deemed smarter and faster than public organizations. The present study reflects a first specific investigation of the so-called “public efficiency” related to the Public Project Management, collocating itself in the ground of the New Public Management.

Given the nature of the subject, which is highly complex and considers various factors, the proposed scientific approach is the use of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps, a soft computing technique used for causal knowledge acquisition supporting the reasoning process.
FCMs are an helpful tool for reforming and re-engineering public administration procedures, which are under constant pressure to become more effective. In point of fact, the case study that was addressed shed light on the potential of FCMs in their capacity to perform explanatory and reflective tasks, as well as their role in assisting businesses with decision-making.

The present study has shown that public projects are more complicated than they initially appear because they are frequently tied to goals other than pure business, and that there are a number of issues that need to be addressed in a more timely and methodical fashion as a result, such as developing a maturity model for public project management, assessing their efficacy, coordinating the efforts of key actors, and organizing the dissemination of knowledge gained through public projects.

The case study selected to accomplish this preliminary analysis concerns a public university in the center of Italy, focusing on the administrative process of approving of an R&D project proposal.