Toward Project Management Maturity. Knowledge Transfer as Key Behaviour of Mature Organization

Knowledge transfer and utilization are prerequisites for changing position at the project management maturity evolution path. A continuous improvement of the practices in collecting and re-usage project knowledge is needed for organizations to be at higher level of proficiency in project management which develops the organization's competitive position in the market of future. Project management performance is based on the knowledge of project team members. Naftanaila (2010) states that "other individuals, either internal or external to the project at hand, can use that knowledge if and only if it is applied and transferred effectively". Efficient knowledge transfer requires not only systems and procedures but also climate for knowledge share. Knowledge transfer between projects enables development of more effective and more sophisticated practices in project management. The results of the survey confirmed that knowledge is managed and utilized to a wider extent among organizations which are more experienced in project management. The immature organizations do not collect the project knowledge in a systematic way. However, managing project knowledge and experiences are still very important activities, no matter if organization is at the lowest or highest level of maturity. As little attention has been paid to how effective project knowledge transfer can help in achieving higher level of maturity in project management, this paper has contributed to the description of the importance of project knowledge transfer and utilization in the manner of improving project management maturity.