Achieving high process capability maturity in construction organisations

Keraminiyage, KP

Abstract

A move towards a process based view has been noted as the way forward to achieve
the desired performance improvements in the construction industry. It has further
been recognised that, it is important for the organisations to possess appropriate
process capability maturity to embark on successful process improvement initiatives
to achieve desired performance improvements. With the success of the software
industry's Capability Maturity Model (CMM), other industries have attempted to map
the principles of CMM as a basis for process improvement initiatives within their
respective settings. Construction is not an exception; the same has been attempted
within the construction industry through a research collaboration between academia
and industry, under the name of SPICE (Structured Process Improvements in
Construction Enterprises).
Being a stepwise improvement strategy, the CMM consists of five maturity levels,
where the first three levels have been identified as low maturity levels, while levels
four and five have been named as high maturity levels. While the low maturity levels
lay the foundation for organisations to attain continuous improvements successfully,
the practices of the high maturity levels deploy the process improvements required to
achieve substantial performance boosts. Despite the fact that achieving high maturity
levels is of utmost importance to achieve continuous improvements, up till now, only
the low maturity level practices of CMM have been mapped within the context of
construction organisations, leaving its true potential unexplored as a construction
process improvement initiative.
In the light of the above, this research aimed at mapping the practices of CMM high
maturity levels to construction organisations to achieve high process capability
maturity within construction organisations. This research has adopted the grounded
theory and case studies as the primary research methods. It used the hermeneutic
spiral approach to operationalise the research. Accordingly, the empirical
investigation of this research consisted of two phases. The first phase is a series of
expert interviews followed by two case studies conducted during the second phase of
the study. Data analysis in this research was based on the coding, content analysis and
cognitive mapping techniques. To assist with the data analysis and presentation

Citation

Keraminiyage, K. Achieving high process capability maturity in construction organisations. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2009