Project management maturity models: The silver bullets of competitive advantage.

Date
2002-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Project Management Institute
Abstract
Project management maturity models are important assessment tools for the profession. Maturity models identify organizational strengths and weaknesses as well as provide benchmarking information. They capture explicit, codified practice (know-what), but do not include the intangible assets of project management (know-how). Some have made the claim that project management maturity models (MM) can lead to a competitive advantage for firms. This paper uses four resource-based frameworks to assess whether or not maturity models lead to a sustained competitive advantage. In the context of the strategy domain, it is concluded that MMs can result in a temporary competitive advantage but not a sustained competitive advantage. Clearly, a sustained competitive advantage is rooted in a combination of know-what and know-how.
Description
Student Award paper
Keywords
Engineering, Project Management
Citation
Project Management Journal, 33(4), 4–14.