A change management maturity model for construction projects

Change is considered to be one of the main risk factors for construction projects. Common consequences of changes include, inter alia, time and cost overruns, quality defects, conflict and safety issues. Existing research has largely focused on the identification of causes of change, analysis of potential change effects, and change management systems which help to minimise the occurrence or the effects of changes. Although these systems have indeed provided effective process support, they do not intend to measure the effectiveness of the change management process and thus, they do not provide clear evidence of the improvement of the change management capability of a project team. In construction, process capability measurement and improvement has evolved over the last decade principally based on capability maturity models (CMM). This paper presents a CMM which aims to provide a measurement framework for assessing the improvement of a project team s capability in dealing with contract changes. Following a review of the change management literature, a questionnaire survey and a number of interviews, a Change Management Maturity Model (CM3) is developed adopting the Capability Maturity Model Integration approach. The model defines five levels of maturity ad hoc, informal, systematic, integrated and continuous improvement. Measurement is carried out on six key process areas management process, risk management, communication, management information, collaboration, and leadership/objectives. The model is then evaluated through three case studies which assess its applicability in practice.