ASSESSMENT of PROJECT MANAGEMENT MATURITY LEVEL and PROJECT SUCCESS: A CASE of WATER PROJECTS

Abstract

Despite the significant contribution of the construction industries to the economy of the country, the performance of the industry remains generally low due mainly to lack of effective project management practices. Hence, the main purpose of this study was to assess project management maturity level and project success in terms of cost, time and quality for the case of water projects. To assess the maturity level, the researcher used Project Management Solutions project management maturity model, which is developed by mirrors ten knowledge areas from the project management body of knowledge guide. The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative research methods to realize the purpose of the study. Questionnaire and key informant interview were used as a tool for data collection. The collected data’s were analyzed for reliability with Cronbach’s alpha test and the results showed 0.82. Statistical package for social sciences version 26 and Microsoft excel 2013 were used to compute average project management maturity level, relative importance index was used to analyze the project success in terms of cost, time and quality, correlation and regression analysis were used to show the relationship between project management maturity level and project success of the water projects. According to the analysis made, the project management maturity level is identified to be Level 2.75, which is labeled as level 3 and this point out that majority of organizational standards and processes were accomplished by most of project management knowledge areas and applied to all projects. Secondly, the study revealed the presence of project success in terms of quality, cost and time to medium level satisfactions. Thirdly, the study identified that there is a positive and significant correlation between project management maturity & project success. Finally, it recommended exerting and focusing on improving the capability of project management team on the lowest knowledge areas through provision of capacity building trainings, to well practice the other seven knowledge areas like cost, time and quality and see possibilities for adding additional knowledge areas like claim, financial, materials and safety & environmental managements. Furthermore, it recommends the consultant to exercise the project management consultancy, put a mandatory requirement for Mega water projects to be led by Project management institute certified project managers and it advices the construction industry regulatory body to consider Project management certification as one means of evaluation criteria during competition of both contractor and consultants for bid.