Maturity of project teams and the accuracy of the delivered projects in achieving goals

Abstract

The objective of this study is to assess the association of project teams maturity with the accuracy of delivered projects in achieving project goals of a contracting manufacture company. This is a qualitative and quantitative empirical study with an explanatory approach. Eighteen project teams, comprising 122 professionals and 71 completed projects, were studied, aiming to correlate the maturity of teams with the accuracy of the performance of delivered projects. Evidence of a positive association between team maturity and the accuracy in achieving deadline and conformity goals was found. The importance of project team maturity as it relates to achieving pre-established performance targets was revealed. In addition to developing an original metric to measure maturity, this study uses the degree of achievement of goals - not simply linear gains in cost, conformity and time - as a project performance metric. Future studies should focus assertively on the goal achievement metric used here rather than on the diffuse search for vague performance maximization.