PROJECT MANAGEMENT MATURITY IN ETHIOPIAN CONSTRUCTION WORKS CORPORATION: THE CASE OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

Abstract

Many organizations use systematic and sequential project management maturity models to improve their project performance. This study used mainstreamed Project management Institute’s PM solution’s Maturity model to assess the Project management body of knowledge areas practice and process maturity level in the context of the Ethiopian Construction Works Corporation. Previous literature and government reports depict that time overrun; cost overrun; serious quality defects and poor definition of project scope are among the critical problems of the organization road construction projects. The objective of the study was to assess project management practice and process maturity level and examined the level of maturity of the organization. This is of course considering strong relationship between Project success and project maturity level. The study used standard questionnaires for project managers, project Engineers, contract and procurement specialists with better project management knowledge for sound understanding of the result of the study with directions of future improvement. The model uses levels 1-5 in increasing order. Level 1 is the lowest project performance of the organization without following structured approach to implement projects while level 5 is the highest performance by the organization with continuous improvement. Results indicate that the overall practice on maturity of project management knowledge areas is found to be level 2.76. Among the knowledge areas Cost and time management are with better maturity level of 3.08 and 2.96 respectively. Quality and Risk management are the least matured areas with level 2.5 and 2.28 respectively. This shows, on average, the organization Project Management process and practice maturity is at the basic level. Such low maturity score depicts the case that the organization perform the knowledge areas without following structured approach or guide line, relying solely on the knowledge and experience of the project manager or project team, and on average the contractor are performing only the basic practices under each knowledge area. Thus, improvement efforts should be taken to improve the current low condition of project management maturity with special emphasis on project quality and risk management.