In the dynamic and complex business environment, characterized by constant challenges, effective project management is a major determinant of survival for organizations. However, in order to achieve better performance, organizations must have structured and mature project management processes. Although there are many maturity models which provide a quantitative approach, the path in search of maturity has not been empirically studied as a subject. The objective of this study was to identify the main factors for maturity in project management in Brazilian organizations. To this end, we adopted the research method field study, by means of descriptive and correlational e-survey with 473 participants, decision makers, or decision influencers in project management - representing 360 organizations of different types, sizes and segments of the Brazilian economy - and their understanding of the influencing factors. The results indicate that the main factors for maturity in project management in the companies studied observe the following hierarchy, from most to least: processes and tools; people and team; organizational support; customer orientation; quality of project managers; and orientation to business. These conditioning factors, especially the first, if properly applied in organizations, can leverage levels of maturity in project management.
project management; maturity model; determinant factors
