Effective project management (PM) is increasingly required for strategy implementation, business transformation management, continual improvement and pioneering product development and service provision. The systematic approach of PM (based on best practices and experience) aims to improve the chances of project success in a competitive environment where scarce resources (capital, human, opportunity, time, etc.) needs to be utilized most effectively. The contribution a project management office (PMO) can make in the medium sized consulting engineering industry to deliver more successful projects was investigated. The investigation involved determining the current state of both PM and PMO maturity in medium sized consulting engineering organisations in South Africa. Furthermore, the required maturity, or level of development, of PM and PMOs were also determined using the prediction orientated Delphi survey method. In the literature study, the concepts of PM, PMO and their maturity determination, successful project delivery, background to the consulting engineering industry in South Africa and similar PM and PMO maturity studies were investigated. From the literature study, an existing maturity survey was selected for each of the concepts PM and PMO. These existing and tested maturity surveys were combined into a single survey. Some demographic information deemed applicable from the literature study was also included in the survey and distributed in a multi-round survey to medium sized organisations similar to the author's organisation, operating in the mining and energy sectors mainly. The current PM and PMO maturity of the organisations taking part in the survey were determined in round 1 of the survey. The required PM and PMO maturity were determined from the round 2 survey results that were completed after the respondents were provided with the round 1 survey statistically averaged maturity levels in an effort to reach a form of consensus amongst the respondents. The round 1 survey was distributed to 161 respondents (response rate of 53%). Round 2 was distributed to the 86 respondents that completed round 1 (response rate of 55%). From the survey results and literature study it was found that there is a definite increase in PM and PMO maturity required in order for medium sized consulting engineering organisations to deliver more successful projects in the mining and energy sector. It was also seen that the maturity levels required for both PM and PMO are not the maximum maturity levels possible. From the empirical study, a definite relationship between PMO and PM was confirmed and it was seen that generally an organisation with a PMO tends to have higher PM maturity levels. For a PMO to be successful, from literature it was seen that the PMO needs to adapt to the organisation and environment it functions in. It was also discovered that a PMO is successful if it reaches the goals it set for itself. The PMO also contributes by systematically and continuously improving and adapting the PM of the company to add the most value to both internal and external customers of the PMO. It is the researcher's opinion that the study is not representative of all medium sized consulting engineering organisations in SA and further research is required to determine industry specific PM and PMO maturity levels and to determine the resulting contribution a PMO can make in this regard. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Effective project management (PM) is increasingly required for strategy implementation, business transformation management, continual improvement and pioneering product development and service provision. The systematic approach of PM (based on best practices and experience) aims to improve the chances of project success in a competitive environment where scarce resources (capital, human, opportunity, time, etc.) needs to be utilized most effectively. The contribution a project management office (PMO) can make in the medium sized consulting engineering industry to deliver more successful projects was investigated. The investigation involved determining the current state of both PM and PMO maturity in medium sized consulting engineering organisations in South Africa. Furthermore, the required maturity, or level of development, of PM and PMOs were also determined using the prediction orientated Delphi survey method. In the literature study, the concepts of PM, PMO and their maturity determination, successful project delivery, background to the consulting engineering industry in South Africa and similar PM and PMO maturity studies were investigated. From the literature study, an existing maturity survey was selected for each of the concepts PM and PMO. These existing and tested maturity surveys were combined into a single survey. Some demographic information deemed applicable from the literature study was also included in the survey and distributed in a multi-round survey to medium sized organisations similar to the author's organisation, operating in the mining and energy sectors mainly. The current PM and PMO maturity of the organisations taking part in the survey were determined in round 1 of the survey. The required PM and PMO maturity were determined from the round 2 survey results that were completed after the respondents were provided with the round 1 survey statistically averaged maturity levels in an effort to reach a form of consensus amongst the respondents. The round 1 survey was distributed to 161 respondents (response rate of 53%). Round 2 was distributed to the 86 respondents that completed round 1 (response rate of 55%). From the survey results and literature study it was found that there is a definite increase in PM and PMO maturity required in order for medium sized consulting engineering organisations to deliver more successful projects in the mining and energy sector. It was also seen that the maturity levels required for both PM and PMO are not the maximum maturity levels possible. From the empirical study, a definite relationship between PMO and PM was confirmed and it was seen that generally an organisation with a PMO tends to have higher PM maturity levels. For a PMO to be successful, from literature it was seen that the PMO needs to adapt to the organisation and environment it functions in. It was also discovered that a PMO is successful if it reaches the goals it set for itself. The PMO also contributes by systematically and continuously improving and adapting the PM of the company to add the most value to both internal and external customers of the PMO. It is the researcher's opinion that the study is not representative of all medium sized consulting engineering organisations in SA and further research is required to determine industry specific PM and PMO maturity levels and to determine the resulting contribution a PMO can make in this regard. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

A crescente busca pela utilização do gerenciamento de projetos enquanto diferencial estratégico no mercado atual e, mais recentemente, a procura pelo gerenciamento de projetos formal e estruturado, como parte da estratégia competitiva da organização, associadas à popularização do termo maturidade, justificam o conceito de maturidade em gerenciamento de projetos e a existência dos modelos de maturidade em gerenciamento de projetos. Existem atualmente diversos modelos de maturidade no mercado. A maioria deles está alinhada a um guia de conhecimento, que é utilizado como medida comparativa na avaliação do nível de maturidade da organização, e classifica o estágio de maturidade da organização em cinco níveis. Difere dos demais o modelo Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®), proposto pelo Project Management Institute (2003). Ao invés de ser concebido como um modelo de níveis de maturidade, tem como enfoque três elementos (conhecimento, avaliação e melhoria), através dos quais o modelo se auto-atribui a capacidade de vincular projetos à estratégia organizacional. O presente estudo procurou avaliar a contribuição da maturidade em gerenciamento de projetos para a seleção de projetos de acordo com a estratégia organizacional. Quanto ao método de pesquisa, foi utilizado o survey, tendo como fonte de evidência um questionário auto-administrado web-based. A população de interesse do pesquisador foi composta pelas organizações estabelecidas no Brasil que se utilizam do gerenciamento de projetos; a amostra da pesquisa foi constituída de profissionais da área de gerenciamento de projetos da rede de contatos do pesquisador. As 78 respostas válidas obtidas com o survey foram submetidas às análises descritiva e inferencial. Em relação aos resultados obtidos, foi possível comprovar que a utilização do modelo OPM3® para avaliação do nível de maturidade da organização influencia a prática da seleção de projetos relacionados à estratégia organizacional. Não foi possível provar que a prática da seleção de projetos relacionados à estratégia organizacional seja influenciada pela existência de processo de formulação da estratégia ou pelo estágio de maturidade predominante na organização para cada domínio (projeto, programa e portfólio). Em se tratando das limitações do estudo, citam-se a pequena quantidade de empresas brasileiras onde o questionário de Auto-Avaliação proposto pelo OPM3® foi utilizado e a obtenção da visão da organização através da percepção do respondente (em alguns casos as questões exigiam uma resposta subjetiva). Por sua vez, a principal contribuição obtida com a pesquisa refere-se à identificação de elementos facilitadores da seleção de projetos relacionados à estratégia organizacional. Como contribuição secundária, pode ser citada a ampliação da quantidade de pesquisas acadêmicas realizadas com apoio de tecnologia para o recebimento dos dados, neste caso, email e hospedagem na Internet. Outras contribuições referem-se à proposição do modelo teórico para a pesquisa e à realização da pesquisa de campo em si, esta última permitindo a obtenção de dados sobre empresas nacionais no que tange ao gerenciamento de projetos e à utilização do modelo OPM3® para avaliação do nível de maturidade. / The increasing use of project management as strategic differential in our market and, most recently, the search of formal and structured project management, as part of organizational competitive strategy, in association with the maturity concept popularization, justify the concept of project management maturity and the existence of project management maturity models. There are many maturity models at the market. Most of them are aligned with a project management body of knowledge, used as reference to the organizational maturity level evaluation, and classify the organizational maturity stage into five linear levels. The Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®), developed under the stewardship of the Project Management Institute (2003), is different. Instead of being designed as a system of levels of maturity, it focuses on three basic elements (knowledge, assessment and improvement), through which the model assigns itself the capability of join organizational strategy and projects. This study aimed to evaluate the contribution of project management maturity into bridging strategy and individual projects. The research method used was the survey, and the measurement instrument was a web-based self-assessment questionnaire. The population frame was composed by Brazilian organizations that use project management; the research sample was composed by researcher networking professionals used to work at project management area. The 78 valid responses obtained through survey were analyzed by descriptive and statistical inference. Regarding the results, it was possible to prove that OPM3® model application in order to assess organizational maturity level acts on the project selection according to organizational strategy. It was not possible to prove that project selection according to organizational strategy depends on the formulation process of the strategy or the organizational maturity stage for each domain (project, program and portfolio). Among the study limitations, there was the small quantity of Brazilian companies that had used Self-Assessment tool provided in OPM3® and the collection of organizational view through the respondent perceptions (in some cases the questions requested a subjective answer). On the other hand, the main research contribution was the identification of helpful agents of project selection according to organizational strategy. As a secondary contribution, the growing in academical research using technological support to data collection, in this case, e-mail and web-based, might be mentioned. Other contributions refer to the theoretical model proposed to the study and the field research itself, this one allowing data collection about project management and the use of OPM3® model to maturity level assessment in Brazilian companies.

The purpose of the study was to develop a revision of the logical reasoning section of the California Test of Mental Maturity which increases its discriminative ability while maintaining an acceptable measure of reliability. Subjects were 102 students of general psychology classes at North Texas State University. All were administered the Logical Reasoning section of the California Test of Mental Maturity in its original form and an experimental revision of it (LRTR). The Wesman Personnel Classification Test was administered at the same time to demonstrate the tests' construct validity. Pearson product-moment correlations, item and homogeneity analyses were run. Results indicated that the revised test correlated significantly with the original test and the WPCT. Internal validity of the revised test was satisfactory, showing an improvement over the original test in terms of clarity, reliability and homogeneity.

With the opportunities to expand from a local to a global market, organizations need to change with the development of information systems and communication technologies. The electronically transforming organizations&#039 / success depends not only to hardware/software usage but also transformation in the well-defined business processes. Successful transformation from &quot / organization&quot / to &quot / e-organization&quot / by innovative processes requires strategic and cultural changes as a result of changes in the leadership. In this thesis, a maturity model for the organizations to achieve to paperless office level will be constructed. Meanwhile, factors which are essential to reach that level are to be identified.

Due to its complex nature, risk and uncertainty are more widespread in construction industry than many other industries. Aiming to ensure that all project objectives are met, risk management is considered as a critical success factor for construction projects. The core elements of risk management are now known and used by many organizations. On the other hand, as declared by Project Management Institute (PMI), the ability to measure the effectiveness in managing risk is one of the most important areas that risk management needs to be developed in. Designed to assess the capability of a project or an organization in a particular area, a maturity model aids in determining strengths and weaknesses, and to target improvement strategies accordingly. Several maturity models have been developed for the area of risk management and furthermore, an attempt to adapt a generic risk management maturity model to the construction industry was specified from the literature. All in all, when examined, it was seen that most of these models outline the topics to be investigated in a maturity assessment and provide guidance in terms of content. It was believed that a practical approach was needed and the diagnostic characteristics of these models should be enhanced. Therefore, the aim of this study was to propose a construction risk management maturity framework, together with an easily applicable and effective questionnaire. To achieve this aim, six outstanding risk management maturity models were examined, and the proposed model was further supported with construction-specific attributes such as construction supply chain issues. The applicability of the model was tested through case studies conducted with five large scale Turkish construction companies. The results were evaluated and interpreted for each company and the gathered data were further investigated through statistical tests for certain comparisons. Finally, the questionnaire was revised with respect to the feedback received from the case studies.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2006. / Supervisor: Shelley R. Saunders. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 285-322).

Cette thèse traite des problématiques liées à la formation et à l’orientation de la personne durant son parcours de vie à travers la notion de la maturité et une recherche psychologique associant à ce parcours un effort scientifique. La vie de chacun étant, en effet, « une histoire jalonnée » de plusieurs transitions qui marquent l’évolution individuelle, la thèse s’est appesantie sur deux concepts clés et indispensables dans la formation, la prise de décision et l’orientation des individus : la maturité et la transition ; la maturité en tant qu’état préparatoire à la prise de décision en matière de formation et d’emploi et la transition en tant qu’événement et processus développemental qui transforme la vie, les rôles, les relations, les habitudes, les représentations de la personne. L’imbrication de ces deux concepts à chaque stade de développement permet aux individus de s’ouvrir au monde des significations suivant les différentes pratiques d’aides et stratégies facilitant l’appropriation et la constitution d’un répertoire des ressources en prévision des éventuelles orientations à court, moyen et long terme. La notion de la maturité m’a permis de mener une enquête grâce à un questionnaire qui décrit trois types d’informations (connaissance du monde professionnel, connaissance des formations et connaissance de professions), à l’aide de trois processus (exploration, décision et planification). Le but de cette étude est de rechercher des créneaux, des stratégies permettant aux jeunes gabonais de trouver des solutions les aidant à s’ouvrir et à s’intéresser à l’information grâce à l’application des nouvelles pratiques d’aides à l’orientation dans le cadre du développement de la notion de la maturité vocationnelle. En conclusion, dans cette thèse de doctorat, deux notions m’ont marqué : celle de la maturité et celle de la transition qui combinent leurs influences pour permettre la construction et le développement du soi et des identités des adolescents et des adultes tout au long de leur existence. A la fin de cette étude, l’actualité et la centralité de ces deux concepts me paraissent évidentes. / This thesis addresses issues related to training and orientation of a person during their life through the notion of maturity and psychological research involving this term scientific effort. Everyone’s life, is indeed, “a story marked” by several transition that mark the individual evolution, the theory has fallen heavily on two key and essential in training, decision making and directory of individuals: maturity and transition; maturity as prior preparation for decision making regarding training and employment and transition as an event and development process that transforms the lives, roles, relationship, habits, representation of person. The interweaving of these two concepts at each stage of development enables people to embrace the world of meaning accord according to different aid practices and strategies to facilitate the ownership and creation of a directory of resources forecasts of possible orientation shot, medium and long term. Notion of maturity allowed me to conduct a survey using a questionnaire shat describes three types of information (knowledge of the business word, knowledge of occupations) using three processes (exploration, decision making and planning). The purpose of this study is to find niches, strategies to enable you Gabonese to find solutions helping to open up and look at information through the of vocational maturity. In addition to this, into this doctoral thesis I have marked two notions: that of the maturity and the transition that combines to allow the construction and development of self identity of adolescents and adults throughout their existence. At the end of the current study of centrality ot these two concepts seem obvious.

A crescente busca pela utilização do gerenciamento de projetos enquanto diferencial estratégico no mercado atual e, mais recentemente, a procura pelo gerenciamento de projetos formal e estruturado, como parte da estratégia competitiva da organização, associadas à popularização do termo maturidade, justificam o conceito de maturidade em gerenciamento de projetos e a existência dos modelos de maturidade em gerenciamento de projetos. Existem atualmente diversos modelos de maturidade no mercado. A maioria deles está alinhada a um guia de conhecimento, que é utilizado como medida comparativa na avaliação do nível de maturidade da organização, e classifica o estágio de maturidade da organização em cinco níveis. Difere dos demais o modelo Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®), proposto pelo Project Management Institute (2003). Ao invés de ser concebido como um modelo de níveis de maturidade, tem como enfoque três elementos (conhecimento, avaliação e melhoria), através dos quais o modelo se auto-atribui a capacidade de vincular projetos à estratégia organizacional. O presente estudo procurou avaliar a contribuição da maturidade em gerenciamento de projetos para a seleção de projetos de acordo com a estratégia organizacional. Quanto ao método de pesquisa, foi utilizado o survey, tendo como fonte de evidência um questionário auto-administrado web-based. A população de interesse do pesquisador foi composta pelas organizações estabelecidas no Brasil que se utilizam do gerenciamento de projetos; a amostra da pesquisa foi constituída de profissionais da área de gerenciamento de projetos da rede de contatos do pesquisador. As 78 respostas válidas obtidas com o survey foram submetidas às análises descritiva e inferencial. Em relação aos resultados obtidos, foi possível comprovar que a utilização do modelo OPM3® para avaliação do nível de maturidade da organização influencia a prática da seleção de projetos relacionados à estratégia organizacional. Não foi possível provar que a prática da seleção de projetos relacionados à estratégia organizacional seja influenciada pela existência de processo de formulação da estratégia ou pelo estágio de maturidade predominante na organização para cada domínio (projeto, programa e portfólio). Em se tratando das limitações do estudo, citam-se a pequena quantidade de empresas brasileiras onde o questionário de Auto-Avaliação proposto pelo OPM3® foi utilizado e a obtenção da visão da organização através da percepção do respondente (em alguns casos as questões exigiam uma resposta subjetiva). Por sua vez, a principal contribuição obtida com a pesquisa refere-se à identificação de elementos facilitadores da seleção de projetos relacionados à estratégia organizacional. Como contribuição secundária, pode ser citada a ampliação da quantidade de pesquisas acadêmicas realizadas com apoio de tecnologia para o recebimento dos dados, neste caso, email e hospedagem na Internet. Outras contribuições referem-se à proposição do modelo teórico para a pesquisa e à realização da pesquisa de campo em si, esta última permitindo a obtenção de dados sobre empresas nacionais no que tange ao gerenciamento de projetos e à utilização do modelo OPM3® para avaliação do nível de maturidade. / The increasing use of project management as strategic differential in our market and, most recently, the search of formal and structured project management, as part of organizational competitive strategy, in association with the maturity concept popularization, justify the concept of project management maturity and the existence of project management maturity models. There are many maturity models at the market. Most of them are aligned with a project management body of knowledge, used as reference to the organizational maturity level evaluation, and classify the organizational maturity stage into five linear levels. The Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®), developed under the stewardship of the Project Management Institute (2003), is different. Instead of being designed as a system of levels of maturity, it focuses on three basic elements (knowledge, assessment and improvement), through which the model assigns itself the capability of join organizational strategy and projects. This study aimed to evaluate the contribution of project management maturity into bridging strategy and individual projects. The research method used was the survey, and the measurement instrument was a web-based self-assessment questionnaire. The population frame was composed by Brazilian organizations that use project management; the research sample was composed by researcher networking professionals used to work at project management area. The 78 valid responses obtained through survey were analyzed by descriptive and statistical inference. Regarding the results, it was possible to prove that OPM3® model application in order to assess organizational maturity level acts on the project selection according to organizational strategy. It was not possible to prove that project selection according to organizational strategy depends on the formulation process of the strategy or the organizational maturity stage for each domain (project, program and portfolio). Among the study limitations, there was the small quantity of Brazilian companies that had used Self-Assessment tool provided in OPM3® and the collection of organizational view through the respondent perceptions (in some cases the questions requested a subjective answer). On the other hand, the main research contribution was the identification of helpful agents of project selection according to organizational strategy. As a secondary contribution, the growing in academical research using technological support to data collection, in this case, e-mail and web-based, might be mentioned. Other contributions refer to the theoretical model proposed to the study and the field research itself, this one allowing data collection about project management and the use of OPM3® model to maturity level assessment in Brazilian companies.

Context. In recent years Agile has gained lots of importance in the fieldof software development. Many organization and software practitioners hasalready adopted agile practice due to its flexibility in nature. Hence, agiledevelopment methodologies have been replaced to traditional developmentmethods. Agile is a family of several methodologies namely Scrum. eXtremeprogramming (XP) and several others. These several methods areembedded with different set of agile practices for the organizations to adoptand implement for their development process. But there is still a need forempirical research to understand the benefits of implementing the Agilepractices which contributes to the overall success of accomplishment of thesoftware project. Several agile maturity models have been published over adecade but not all of the models have been empirically validated. Hence,additional research in the context of agile maturity is essential and needed. Objectives. This study focus on providing a comprehensive knowledgeon the Agile Maturity Models which help in guiding the organizations regardingthe implementation of Agile practices. There are several maturitymodels published with different set of Agile practices that are recommendedto the industries. The primary aim is to compare the agile maturity maturitymodels and to investigate how the agile practices are implemented inthe industry Later the benefits and limitations faced by the software practitionersdue to implementation of agile practices are identified. Methods. For this particular research an industrial survey was conductedto identify the agile practices that are implemented in the industry. Inaddition, this survey aims at identifying the benefits and limitations of implementingthe agile practices. A literature review is conducted to identifythe order of agile practices recommended from the literature in agile MaturityModels. Results. From the available literature nine Maturity Models have beenextracted with their set of recommended agile practices. Then the resultsfrom the survey and literature are compared and analyzed to see if thereexist any commonalities or differences regarding the implementation of agilepractices in a certain order. From the results of the survey the benefitsand limitations of implementing the Agile practices in a particular order areidentified and reported. Conclusions. The findings from the literature review and the survey resultsin evaluating the agile maturity models regarding the implementationof agile practices.