Assessing Project Management Maturity in Africa: A Ghanaian Perspective
Date
2013
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
International Journal of Business Administration
Abstract
The level of project management awareness and recognition of the standards and knowledge sharing among
professionals is on the rise. Despite this many projects continue to fail. Ameliorating project failure requires project
management maturity among practitioners. Project management maturity is the progressive development of an
enterprise-wide project management approach, methodology, strategy, and decision-making process. To ascertain the
level of maturity among project-oriented organizations in Ghana the following research questions were raised: Is the
concept of PM maturity understood in Ghana? What are Project Management Maturity levels in Ghana? What
maturity models are in use? Are there differences in project management maturity levels in industries in Ghana? The
study was exploratory and utilized a questionnaire survey method to collect data on project management
Maturity in Ghanaian organizations. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample of 200 managers from different
economic sectors. The findings showed that differences exist in the current project management maturity levels
across each phase of the project life cycle for all organizations. The study also showed that most of the practitioners
expect their respective organizations to attain higher levels of project management maturity (PMM) albeit at various
levels. Organizations operating in the non-profit (NGO) category exhibited relatively higher levels of maturity
compared to the other categories of organizations in all five phases of the project management life cycle. Firms in
the public sector of Ghana recorded low levels of maturity in most of the phases of the project management life cycle.
This may be attributed to the low level of project management expertise in the sector, with possible dire consequence
to the country’s development since the public sector accounts for a large percentage of projects executed in Ghana.
Overall, the findings seem to indicate that project management maturity occurs in phases; PM maturity does not
occur as an event but is an ongoing process that is interlinked. The implication therefore is that organisations cannot
claim to be mature in one area and neglect the other; it becomes imperative for project-implementing organizations in
Ghana to strive to attain maturity in all five phases of the project management life cycle to attain the full
benefits of the projects they implement.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
project management, maturity, Africa, Ghana