{jcomments off}The AICE (Italian Association for Total Cost Management) has been preliminarily put in charge by the ICEC Region II meeting in Roma on November 2008, to organize the world congress in Milano for year 2014. The original proposal, submitted at that time, was revised at the Region II meeting in Paris on October, 2009, where AICE submitted its proposal for a research project on the body of knowledge of our profession, in order to verify similarities and discrepancies between the body of knowledge of the various ICEC association as well as to carry on the corresponding check between ICEC and other project management associations such as IPMA and PMI.

This is because we feel, at least in Latin countries, that the bodies of knowledge and competence of project management and project controls are going towards further assimilation, and therefore we would like first to understand if such feeling corresponds to reality, second if it is a peculiarity of some countries or if it is a general tendency and eventually to try making some assumptions on the future of our profession, to be as a guide for the next generation.

The general ICEC council in Singapore has eventually confirmed the assignment for the congress in 2014 to the AICE.

The AICE

The AICE is the Italian Association for Total Cost Management, founded in 1978 and member of the ICEC ever since; accreditation of certification procedures was granted for the “expert” level since 1992 and for the practitioner (entry level) since 2000. As it is now, the AICE has about 200 individual members; out of them, 92 members hold the “expert level” certificate and 53 the “practitioner level” certificate.

Starting from year 2007, AICE has begun a process of diversification; besides the historical relationship with Bocconi University and Bocconi Business School (SDA Bocconi), AICE has started to be connected with other universities, such as the LUISS (Social Studies University and Business School in Roma), the “Universus” Business School in Bari, the Catholic University in Piacenza. The purpose of such connections is to start with formation courses, as per body of knowledge accredited by the ICEC, in several parts of Italy, since we feel that there is a strong need for formative paths in our profession.

Furthermore, besides being member of the ICEC. the AICE has become member of two federations, namely:

• The COLAP, a coordination body of professional associations; this is because in Italy the structure of all professions shall be subject to new laws and regulations, that will modify the old structure based on “professional orders” that are actually semi-public bodies incorporated in the Ministry of Justice to a new structure that, besides keeping the orders untouched, will give a formal acceptance to private professional associations such as the AICE. Therefore the AICE has been already registered in the CNR (National Council for Scientific Research) roaster and is waiting for the registration at the Ministry of Justice.
• The FAST (Federation of Scientific and Technical Associations) where the AICE has its new postal address. Founded in Milan in 1897, FAST, the Italian Federation of the Scientific and Technical Associations, is an independent, nonprofit organization, legally recognized by the Minister of Scientific and Technological Research and Universities, operating on national and international level, directly, or through its associated organizations. The Federation brings together, the most qualified and representative scientific and technical associations in Italy with a total of over 50 000 members.

The network

By the end of 2009 the AICE proposed to the ICEC association a network together with universities and business schools either for specific formative courses in total cost management or for other courses of wider scope, provided that they be in some way related to total cost or project management, project controls, life cycle costs.

The purpose could be to organize an international course, to be held in English language, aiming at giving to people already certified or in the way of certification a deeper knowledge of international procedures, laws and standards, etc.. The project could be done in network with European or extra European universities, in some way related to ICEC associations.

Therefore the AICE requested from other ICEC association some preliminary information on this topic, namely:

• Existing partnership or cooperation agreement with universities or business school that could take part to the project
• High profile lecturers that could be invited for a lecture in Milano or other Italian towns.
• Existing case histories to be used in the courses

The same network can be the starting point for the work to be done on body of knowledge: during 2010 the AICE will request to all ICEC association, as well as to other association connected to the ICEC such us IPMA, RICS, etc. a copy of their updated body of knowledge in order to start with comparison and further analysis and consideration. This research project has been already approved by the ICEC and a group of interest is already working on it. 

The Congress

The congress shall be held in Milano, at the premises of Bocconi University, unless we think advisable to move to other, prestigious location also taking into consideration the foreseen number of attendees.

Besides the usual aim of all ICEC professional congresses, we aim at increasing the visibility of the AICE as well as of the profession as a whole, this will benefit all the ICEC association; for doing so, we are planning to propose, in the years from 2010 to 2014, a research and knowledge management project to update and integrate the body of knowledge of the ICEC and to move from a simple BOK to a real body of competence.

The main topic will be to investigate how this body of knowledge could be a requisite for the business development in a sustainable way. Other research paths will be relevant to validity and SWOT analysis of the certification, compared with other related certificates such as IPMA, PMI, etc.,