The article represents a critical reading of the framework legislation on the creation of Public Works aimed at highlighting the important role it attributes to programming instruments as strategic devices for the efficient management of implementation processes. Starting with a summary of the critical issues detected in the performance practices and considering their main determining causes, the contribution emphasises the value of the impact that, for the purposes of the efficiency of procedural models and control devices, the effects induced by the outcomes of the programming period have on the entire realization process, and specifically on the planning phase. It also points out, in this regard, the importance of the “circularity” that characterizes the construction process
