Broadening the view of Project Management Maturity

Citation

Pasian, B. and Williams, N. (2014), "Broadening the view of Project Management Maturity", International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Vol. 7 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-01-2014-0014

Broadening the view of Project Management Maturity

Article Type:Guest editorial From: International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Volume 7, Issue 2

This special issue presents a global perspective on research in the area of Project Management Maturity. The area is one of great interest as evidenced by the numerous submissions from researchers and practitioners working in a number of countries. The final volume reflects this great global interest, with contributions drawn from Australia, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and Europe.

Our first contributor is Mark Mullaly who challenges the implicit assumptions of uniformity, certainty and control that are embedded in maturity models. His paper presents empirical work on 68 firms to determine the value and efficacy of maturity models. The research identifies the need for maturity models to become more adaptive to meet the broad, complex challenges of organizations.

Beverly Pasian presents a collection of non-process factors that challenge current conceptual and modularization limitations of Project Management Maturity. In arguing that certain undefined projects need flexible project management, she shows that various human, adaptable and customer-oriented factors can satisfy this need. It represents the first time that human factors are linked to Project Management Maturity.

Michael Young’s contribution presents findings from the application of P3M3 maturity assessments in Australia. His study reveals that project, program and portfolio activities are viewed by management as separate domains both from each other and the organizational context. It suggests, that far from breaking down internal organizational silos, project teams in less mature organizations can create fiefdoms of their own.

Naomi Brookes work uses data from UK organizations to explore the role Project Management Maturity Models (PMMMs) play in improving organizational performance. The findings indicate that while individual responses to PMMMs data collection instruments exhibit a high degree of variability, the aggregated findings are perceived as valid by project stakeholders. These results indicate that future PMMMs should draw on knowledge from a wider range of stakeholders in order to benefit from the wisdom of the project crowd.

Our next two contributions focus on risk management maturity in the construction industries of United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, respectively. Omayma Hashim Motaleb reports that delays associated with infrastructure and building projects have cost billions in the United Arab Emirates. The research indicates that more mature organizations are more successful at implementing risk management activities that result in successful projects. Similarly, Budi Hartono’s research in Indonesia indicates that higher levels of maturity are correlated with improved organizational performance. Together, these papers suggests that maturity models are applicable in a wide range of contexts and are useful to firms from both developed and emerging markets.

Jan Christoph Albrecht applies a contingency perspective to identify optimum levels of Project Management Maturity in organizations. His case study findings indicate that firms attempt to identify a level of maturity that provides an adequate return for the resources required for maturity implementation. This process is influenced by the degree of project complexity, which provides additional support for the need to build adaptive maturity models that can fit differing organizational contexts.

Our issue closes with practice and research notes. Reinhard Friedrich Wagner applies the IPMA delta assessment model to examine project management in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Finally, Nigel Williams et al. suggests that future maturity model research should incorporate new ways of measuring project and organizational performance. While research has expanded the domain of maturity models, the way in which data is collected and analysed has not changed significantly. In order to build new types of maturity models that are applicable in a wide range of organizational contexts, researchers not only need to change what is measured, but how it is measured. Using a perspective adopted from the emerging trend of Big Data, they identify techniques and approaches that can build holistic and adaptive maturity models.

Overall, the papers in this volume present a range of conceptual and empirical papers, extending the body of academic knowledge in Project Management Maturity. The level of interest indicate that this topic will only grow in prominence in years to come and it will be interesting to revisit it in a future special issue.

Beverly Pasian, Nigel Williams
Guest Editors