Project management maturity in the age of big data

Abstract

Purpose – While the area of project management maturity (PMM) is attracting an increased amount of research attention, the approaches to measuring maturity fit within existing social science conventions. This paper aims to examine the potential contribution of new data collection and analytical approaches to develop new insights in PMM. Design/methodology/approach – This paper takes the form of a literature review. Findings – The current trends of rapidly growing digital data collection and storage may have the potential to develop approaches to PMM assessment that overcome the limitations of existing qualitative and quantitative approaches. Research limitations/implications – Future research in PMM can employ techniques such as social network analysis and text analysis to develop insights based on the flow and content of information in organizations. Practical implications – Adoption of data analytical approaches from big data can enable the creation of new types of holistic and adaptive maturity models. Holistic maturity models provide insights based on both structured and unstructured data within organizations. Adaptive maturity models provide rapid insights based on the flow of information within an enterprise. Originality/value – The recent trend towards digitising of organizational knowledge and interactions has created the possibility to apply new analytical approaches and techniques to the understanding of PMM in firms. This paper identifies possible tools and approaches that can be applied to create new types of maturity models based on structured and unstructured data.