The PM² Alliance supports the volunteers who translate the PM² Methodology into their own languages. The publication of the Italian version of the PM² Guide has just been completed.
The translation team of the PM² Guide was led by Francesca Petrelli member of the PM² Alliance Advisory Committee on Methodology, supervised by Nicos Kourounakis, Co-Author of the PM² Methodology, and included Marco Amici, Researcher at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and PM² Alliance Regional Coordinator for Italy and Alex Cagliesi member of the PM² Alliance. The same team contributed to the translation of the PM² Overview and is now committed to concluding the work with the translation of the PM² set of artefacts.
We interviewed Marco Amici, Researcher at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and PM² Alliance Regional Coordinator for Italy, member of the translation team about the translation work.
How did you hear about the PM² methodology and how did everything start?
I heard about the methodology fortuitously by reading a Linkedin post advertising a conference presenting a new project management methodology developed by the European Commission, so considering my interests in the European Union issues and in project management I had no choice than to join. It was beginning of February 2018, and after the participation of the conference I totally embraced the spirit of the methodology and its potential to contribute to enable better project management in Europe. Since then, other colleagues shared this view and we set up a group of volunteers devoted to the promotion of the first open source, free and European project management methodology. We started dealing with the translation of the different materials and resources available. In May 2020 the translated version of the Overview of the methodology was published by the European Commission and finally after another year of work the Italian version of the PM2 Guide (v. 3.0.1) was realised and now it is available to all Italian speaking community.
Which are the main challenges you faced in the translation work?
The translation work was not easy, firstly because we are volunteers and also due to the need of coordination among the team. We started by agreeing on the translation of the roles of the governance model, which proved to be the most complex part of the work as it was not easy to find an effective translation for some English terms of the key roles, as the Project Owner and the Business Manager, to name some. Also, for the translation of some artefacts we struggled to find the best translation as in the case of the Business Implementation Plan. Anyway, we are confident that the solutions found can be appreciated and are in line with the spirit of the methodology.
What are the main strengths of the methodology?
As it is true for all methodologies, the PM² methodology also has its strengths and weaknesses, but the first are definitively many more than the second. I would start from the fact that is a truly European Project Management Methodology developed and promoted by the European Union institutions and at the same time is open source, light, lean and easy to understand. These characteristics can facilitate the adoption of the methodology and create a common language for all those who work in project management, especially in the European countries.
How can PM² be adopted in the Italian context?
As for all innovation time is needed. In the Italian context there is an interest in the methodology and the publication of the Italian version of the PM² Guide (v. 3.0.1) will certainly contribute to raise such interest and allow for a wider use. Being an open-source methodology, everyone can use and adapt PM² in their organization or units, so at the moment different bottom-up initiatives have been launched either in public sector organizations or private firms. I hope such initiatives can grow also thanks to our translation work as well as the work done within the PM2 Alliance by the Italian Regional Group.
Read more: The Italian Translation of the PM² Overview
