Abstract
Project management (PM) is a career that annually attracts many people, despite not providing project managers with the same professional status as a medical doctor or chartered accountant. These disciplines are globally recognised as being mature and professional. The purpose of this article is to investigate and analyse the maturity of the PM discipline. Many organisations invest resources in PM, believing that it can be used to complete all new initiatives successfully. Several surveys have shown that many projects still fail to deliver the expected results. In order to understand the reason for projects still failing, the maturity ofthe discipline needs to be investigated. The article follows a qualitative research approach and uses a literature survey to determine what constitutes a mature discipline. Using the fmdings of this survey, an analysis is done ofPM as a discipline. The result is an objective, independent assessment of the maturity of PM and an indication ofwhether it can be considered a profession. The benefit of this article is that it provides evidence on the maturity ofthe PM discipline. It also highlights the areas that must be focused on, from a PM perspective, to ensure that PM evolves into a more mature and professional discipline.