Project Excellence Assessment

Maturity does not equate Excellence in Project Management, but is a prerequisite to it. Both maturity and excellence should be assessed organization-wide rather than for individual project. While a large proportion of projects, particularly in Iran, fail, substantially delayed, or is cost overrun, most companies are far off the ladder of maturity and excellence. A quantitative model for Project Excellence Assessment may lead companies to self assessment and improvement. Based on previous work in TQM, EFQM, OPM3, and other excellence assessment models, a Project Excellence Assessment model is here proposed. This framework may well become a model for a National Award competition in Iran. The paper presents research-in-progress on project excellence in organizations. The purpose is to develop an understanding of what project excellence is. The hypothesis is that project excellence develops through a excellence ladder, where the ladder steps move through project management, program management, and portfolio management, with multi-dimensional factors.