Project management maturity model ELOT1429: An application methodology

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of an investigation to evaluate the applicability level of project management maturity model (PMMM) ELOT1429, a Greek standard developed by the Hellenic Standardization Organization (ELOT) and released in 2009. The investigation is performed within a private sector organization that may provide information technology (IT) services as scope of public interest projects in cooperation with government agencies in the context of the 4th European Community Support Framework (CSF). Implicit within the model's description is an idea that project performance improves. However, the existing empirical evidence to understand the comparative effectiveness of ELOT1429 approach in project management is absent and practical application is limited. Moreover, there are a number of key factors addressed by international PMMMs that have to be considered for effectiveness and efficiency in project management. The paper critically evaluates the new standards' assets in contrast to the existing international PMMMs and addresses a number of differences between them in the area of organizational structure, project management methodology, and resource management and performance improvement. A significant knowledge gap that the organization faces derives from the parallelism of ELOT1429 and applied ISO9001. A survey that investigates the organizational culture orientation out of 21 employees revealed a significant gap. The paper concludes by proposing a system approach in adopting the new standard, by addressing the PMMMs’ gap analysis, the organizational culture orientation based on organizational culture assessment instrument (OCAI) and the project management knowledge gap.