Measuring Project Management Maturity: The Case of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) in Ethiopia
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Date
2018-12-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Project management maturity level refers to a state that provides perfect condition to achieve organization’s objectives. Project management maturity has direct impact on project performance. The objective of this project work was to measure the project management maturity level of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working in Ethiopia in different locations. Mixed qualitative and quantitative approach, applied descriptive design, survey questionnaire, interviews, desk review, focus groups discussions, a five-level project management maturity model and the ten Project Management Body of Knowledge areas were used. The overall project maturity level was found to be 2.9 which indicated the presence of organizational standards and institutionalized project management processes. It was found that five PM knowledge areas called integration management (3.2), time management (3.1), human resource management (3.0), procurement management (3.3), and stakeholder/partner management (3.6) were in a better maturity level than other five knowledge areas, namely scope management (2.4), cost management (2.2), quality management (2.4), communication management (2.8), and risk management (2.8). All ten knowledge areas were found relevant to improve the performance of NGOs’ projects; however, knowledge areas which had a serious attention or follow up from donors and government were relatively mature than those knowledge areas that received less attention. As a result, all knowledge areas weren’t implemented adequately and equally. The PMI maturity model hasn’t included some features of development projects and DAC’s criteria. The existing project management maturity levels can be applied to NGOs with some modifications. Key suggestions were 1) to apply all 10 knowledge areas equally in all projects; 2) to develop a comprehensive PMM framework for NGOs which can include all 10 knowledge areas, additional characteristics of development projects, and DAC’s criteria; 3) to improve the scope, cost and quality management as a priority; 4) to develop a roadmap and improve the current PM maturity level based on findings; 5) share findings to other NGOs for learning and scale up; and 6) to conduct further research for wider/national level recommendations and impact.
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Project maturity, project maturity models, project management