Abstract
Increasingly, organizations that have not traditionally participated in projects are turning to project management (PM) without a thorough understanding of its philosophy, concepts, and practises. This "PM rush" by all categories of organizations creates a situation in which many organizations face the challenge of underperforming. As businesses confront the challenge of rapidly changing markets and transition, their project management frameworks become more dynamic, hence the need for PM maturity (PMM).
The purpose of this study was to assess and determine the PMM of a Project Based Organization (PBO) which is a South African government agency mandated to fast track the implementation of infrastructure projects as well as accelerate housing project deliveries. The research objectives of the research study were: (1) to assess the organization's strengths and weaknesses in PM; (2) to determine how well the organization understands the fundamentals of PM for project conception and execution; (3) to evaluate the effectiveness of the project's conceptualization and implementation methods, as well as the team's adherence to the methods; and (4) to propose an appropriate single methodology for project conceptualization and implementation to enhance project performance in the organization and assist it in achieving world-class status.
Primary data was collected by means of a focus group whilst the secondary data was collected through document review, literature review (including article reports, textbooks, journal articles, and conference papers from foreign and library sources), and by observation; essentially, all data were collected in order to analyse the cause-and-effect relationships between the dependent and independent variables pertaining to the research questions (RQs). The findings indicate a low level of PMM by project practitioners of the PBO in relation to the research objectives, subsequently, the research study provides various recommendations as well as proposes a single methodology to assist to improve the performance of the organisation. Furthermore, the research study concludes that the PBO needs to continuously adapt its competence against the evolving PM attributes and frequently conduct PMM assessments.