ASSESSMENT OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT MATURITY LEVEL: THE CASE OF ETHIOPIAN RAILWAYS CORPORATION (ERC)

Abstract

Organizations use systematic and methodological project management maturity models to improve their project performance. Project management Institute’s PM solution’s Maturity model was used to assess the Project management body of knowledge areas practice and process maturity level in Ethiopian Railways Corporation. Time overrun; serious quality defects; poor definition of project scope and cost overrun; are the main problems depicted as defects seen in railway construction projects on literatures and government reports. Keeping in mind the fact that there is a relationship between Project success and project maturity level, the objective of the study was to assess project management practice and process maturity level and scrutinize the level of maturity of the organization. The study used standard questionnaires for employees of the corporation with better project management knowledge, selected on the basis of their position for sound understanding of the result of the study with directions of future improvement. Project management Institute’s PM solution’s Maturity model uses levels 1-5 in increasing order. Level 1 is the lowest project performance of the organization with lack of structured approach to implement projects while level 5 is the highest performance by the organization with continuous improvement. The research shows that the overall maturity of project management knowledge areas averages found to be 2.95 which almost reaching level 3 Organizational standards and institutionalized process. Among the knowledge areas Integration Management, Scope Management, Human Resource Management, Risk Management, and Procurement Management have shown comparatively higher level of maturity compared with other PM knowledge areas. These knowledge areas are more or less being performed in better maturity by the organization. Whereas the knowledge areas of Time Management, Cost Management and Project Quality Management, Risk Management maturities and Project Stakeholders Management are comparatively at lower level and could be considered low and to be performed informally by the organization. Such low maturity score results when the organization perform the knowledge areas without continuity, lacking structured approach or guide line, and relying exclusively on the knowledge and experience of the project manager or project teams. Thus, the corporation should have to undertake major enhancement to improve the current low state of project management maturity with particular emphasis on project quality, cost, communications and time management; areas resulted with lower maturity level. Key words: Maturity level, Maturity Model, Ethiopian Railways Corporation