Project Management Maturity: Elevating Organizational Performance

Organizations simply can no longer execute projects the same way they have in the past. Their managers must rethink methods and change in response to an evolving context that is confronting every organization. An efficient way to realize this change is to evaluate project management and organizational project management maturity. Project Management Maturity: Elevating Organizational Performance explains how such an evaluation not only provides an independent benchmark of project management performance but also recommends targeted actions for change and improvement.

The book offers a framework to assess project management maturity at both the project and organizational levels. This framework was developed by academics and professionals tasked with evaluating project management maturity to improve organizational performance. To explain the steps required for a successful maturity evaluation, the book takes an action research approach to describe in detail the evaluation process. It further illustrates the process with a real-world case study of a maturity evaluation in a public sector organization. Presenting key findings and recommendations that follow from an evaluation, the book explains the four categories of results and describes general avenues for improvement based on the authors’ field experience. To help managers with their own evaluations, the book discusses how project management professionals have experienced the evaluation process and how they have transformed their organizations. It also presents how evaluators have experienced the process and how they have collaborated with project and organizational managers.

Alejandro Romero-Torres holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering and is full professor in the Department of Management at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). He is chairholder of the UQAM Project Management chair and director of the Lab for Innovative Practices in Project Contexts. His research focuses primarily on the governance and management of infrastructure and digital projects, with particular attention to stakeholder engagement, decision-making processes, and value creation. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to education, he received the PMI Linn Stuckenbruck Teaching Excellence Award in 2020. In recent years, he has also served as an external advisor on public project management for various ministries and public organizations in the province of Québec, Canada.

Maude Brunet is associate professor in the Department of Management at HEC Montréal. Her research interests include project organizing, governance and innovation of megaprojects, public infrastructure projects, and public-private partnerships. She is associate editor for the European Management Review (area of Project Management Studies), and she formerly served as associate editor for the International Journal of Project Management. She has published in several project management and administrative science journals and has co-directed three books, including the Research Handbook on Complex Project Organizing.

Benoît Lalonde graduated from the Université du Québec à Montréal with a Master’s in project management (1992) and an Executive MBA (1993), and for more than 30 years he has applied his expertise in project, program, and portfolio management to help organizations create value and enhance performance. His mission is to guide organizational leaders in aligning strategy with execution across private enterprises, municipalities, and public or semi-public institutions. Benoît has supported hundreds of organizations in Canada and internationally. As president of the Board of Directors of PMI Montréal for a decade, he played a pivotal role in promoting best practices and strengthening the project management community in Québec. Today, as founder of GPBL Think Project, he continues to equip business leaders with the tools and insights needed to achieve their objectives in an increasingly complex and competitive environment.

Monique Aubry holds a PhD in project management. She is associate professor at the Department of Management at Université du Québec à Montréal. She pursues her research on two main topics: the
development of megaprojects and organizing for project delivery. In 2020, she was awarded the PMI Research Achievement Award for her entire career; in 2012, she received the IPMA Research Award for her research on Project Management Offices. Over the last few years, she has acted as an external adviser on the management of public projects for several ministries and public organizations in the province of Québec, Canada.