Quality Management System for Territorial Planning in Provincia di Roma

The approach of firms and public administrations to Quality and Environment management is rapidly and deeply developing. Furthermore, the new cultural trend indicates them as one of the strategic keys to a continuous improvement of the economic and general management performances. A public organization that wants to be aware of the new needing of the market and careful to the expectations of the local communities, has to radically change is command and control logic to a new active and proactive behaviour towards the citizens as customers, in particular in all the aspects concerning territorial planning and management. The paper describes how a selected teamwork of the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and “Provincia di Roma”, has built up Quality Management System for the “Territorial Planning and Sustainable Development” department, trying to adapt typical concepts of the manufacturing and services reality to a Local Administration focusing the experience on a future ISO 9000:2000 standard certification. Starting from the processes analysis, throughout the implementation of the system in collaboration with the technical and staff personnel, including a deep attention on training problems, the evolution of the job follows the tracks made by Provincial Plan (PTPG) that involved the department all along the period of collaboration. It was the mainframe to apply all the Project Management and Quality System methods and techniques and introduce a new way of acting in the government and political sector that is usually very far from Quality Management.