This chapter reports findings from two studies on the progress made with respect to project maturity based on OPM3 metrics and the role project maturity plays on organizational performance. Maybe it is a little surprising that the signification effect of maturity is not reported directly on project success. This research demonstrates the significant contribution of project maturity on perceived organizational internal and external performance. The increase in organizational project maturity levels 3 and higher during the last five years is certainly promising and signals a positive outlook for the future. The chapter also discusses the importance of the organizational maturity and the new paradigms of maturity and sustainable development, beneficial to project maturity research.
TopIntroduction
Organizations continue to face challenge in improving their project management performance. Projects failing time, cost, and expectation targets are widely reported by researchers. Studies by Standish Group (2007), McKinsey and Oxford Study reported by Bloch-Blumberg-Laartz, (2012), and further studies published by researchers showed significant budget overruns, late finishes, or not meeting project requirements (Geneca, 2011, Miklosik, 2014, 2015, Okoro, 2015).
Project maturity, modeled as OPM3 by the Project management Institute (2004, 2013) aims to integrate, assess and improve project management practices. OPM3 measures organizational project management maturity (PMM) by assessing the existence of best practices. Each best practice contains a set of capabilities and each capability contains a set of outcomes. An organization achieves a Best Practice when it consistently demonstrates all of supporting capabilities. The previous research recognized the effects of a company’s project management system and management’s ability to execute projects successfully (Cooke-Davis, 2004; Ives, 2005; Kerzner, 2005; Belassi et al., 2007;Crawford, 2007).
Despite these promises, and the expectation that more mature project management practices result in better project performance, the previous findings were conflicting (Ibbs & Kwak, 2000; Mullaly, 2006; Grant & Pennypacker, 2006; Wheatley, 2007; Yazici, 2009; Pretorius, 2012; Killen & Hunt, 2013; Abdul-Rasid et. al, 2014; Torres, 2014; Mir & Pinnington, 2014). Lack of strong evidence of PMM’s contribution on project and organization success as a means of competitive advantage led to further research. The need for an organizational project management assessment model with the consideration of broader organizational and contextual factors were suggested by several researchers (Gorog, 2016, Miklosik, 2014; Mullaly, 2014; Pasian, 2014; Ellis & Berry, 2013; Fernandez, et al., 2014; Aubry, 2015; Silvius, 2013, 2015, 2017).