Project management maturity versus project success In South African companies

Abstract

In a fiercely competitive and changing environment most companies employ project management as a strategic tool to respond to the changing business environment and to outperform their competitors, yet the project management maturity level and the Project Success rates for the particular company is not always known. The main objective of this research was to determine whether a higher project management maturity level would go hand in hand with a higher project performance level. To assist in the project management maturity assessment of organisations in South Africa, a shortened version of Harold Kerzner’s project management maturity model was used in the empirical research. Regression analysis was used to determine the correlation between the maturity level and actual project performance of the surveyed organisations. Non-empirical research into the fields of Project Management Benchmarking, Project Management Maturity and Project Success were used to motivate the findings of the empirical research. Whilst conducting the empirical research, assessment and analysis, it was identified that most organisations operate at different project management maturity levels and that there is a relatively strong correlation between the maturity level and Project Success. The analysis of the data indicated that a significant opportunity exists to improve project management maturity within South African organisations and a number of recommendations were made in that regard.