Improving project management methodology and maturity : case study for a Lebanese financial organization within the information technology field

Abstract

Information Technology projects are becoming of much importance because they play a major role in implementing organizations' strategy and achieving competitive advantage. Therefore, improving the way projects are managed and delivered is gaining interest in the last few decades. The systematic approach for improving organization's project management (PM) practices and infrastructure is already discussed in the literature in many maturity models; however, the existing models are generic, lack quantification and do not include up-to-date project management practices. In this paper, I develop a novel maturity model (Simple Information Technology maturity model or SIT-MM). This new model is based on project management body of knowledge (PMBOK 4th edition), is dedicated towards information technology application area, integrates state-of-the-art tools and techniques and presents the findings in quantitative manner. Afterwards, SIT-MM is applied in the IT department of a financial organization that has problems in its project management methodology. The findings show very low maturity scores in terms of adopting best-practices and readiness and support for project management. This paper adds to the literature a simple maturity model that can be easily applied in the IT industry to assess PM maturity and plan and prioritize improvement initiatives.