KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
IT'S ROLE IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGEMENT
A. N. Prakash, Managing Director,
A. N. Prakash Construction Project Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
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Introduction
The need to manage projects well and to learn from one project to the next is of vital importance as the whole world becomes more and more project based. Our management of complex projects is often seen as less effective than it might be, and consequently, we need to learn from one project to the next. But in practice, projects are all often not reviewed at all for various reasons. And even if they are reviewed, methods don't try to explain the complexity in terms of either success or failure and therefore there is no understanding about what one wrong or right. So with few exceptions, project reviews / "lessons learned" are rarely performed and useful lessons captured. Therefore, it is necessary for a project based organisation to set processes through which the knowledge/experience is regularly captured and shared within the organisation to make it a very efficient functionally learned organisation.
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What Is Knowledge Management (Km)
SOURCE: http://www.idatix.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Knowledge-Management.jpg
Unfortunately, there is no universal definition of knowledge management (KM), as there is no agreement as to what constitutes knowledge in the first place. For this reason, it is best to think of knowledge management in broadest context. Very simply put, knowledge management is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge based assets. Most often generating values from such assets involves codifying what employees and customers know, and sharing that information within the organization and even with other companies in an effort to devise best practices. It is important to note that the definition says nothing about the technology; while knowledge management is often facilitated by IT, technology by itself is not KM.
Projects are, by nature, temporary endeavours, and any learning that is accumulated in construction project will largely dissipate at the end of the project unless attention is paid to the collection and dissemination of that knowledge.
Knowledge Management (KM) in project based organizations (PBOs) is often a complex task. This is because project teams often consist of people with diverse skills working together for extended period of time. Indeed, a project team often includes members who have never worked together previously and may not expect to work together again. In these circumstances, effective knowledge management is complex, but, however, is essential. Knowledge management within projects is often very minimal within these organizations, because knowledge is created in one project, and then subsequently misplaced. The failure of many knowledge transfer systems is often as a result of cultural factors rather than technological oversights.
Before we go any further, we need to understand what "knowledge" is. Knowledge has been defined in many ways. One of the many ways of defining knowledge is : "Knowledge involves a person using his / her perception, skills and experience to process information, thus converting it into knowledge in the mind of individual" as defined by Kirchner. The concept of knowledge can be distinguished from "data" and "information". Data is unprocessed raw facts. Information is meaningful aggregations of data.
The process begins with 'data' being organized to produce "general information". The next stage involves this "general information" being sorted out and structured to produce information that meets the requirements of a specific group of users. Individuals then absorb this information and transform it into knowledge on the basis of individuals' experiences, attitudes and the context in which they work.
Unless knowledge leads to an informed decision, the whole process is useless. Knowledge can be categorized into (1) Tacit knowledge and (2) Explicit knowledge.
Source: http://www.apo-tokyo.org/p-glossary_images/km.jpg
Explicit knowledge are assets such as patents, trade marks, business plans, marketing research etc., As a general rule of thumb, explicit knowledge consists of anything that can be documented, archived and codified, often with the help of IT.
Project Based Organisations and Project Management
Project management was previously regarded as a specialized management process with a specific planning, monitoring and control techniques that was applied to the operations of a few construction projects, it has now come to be regarded as an inclusive concept that can be integrated into a general organizational effort to provide better quality to customers through effective intra organizational integration and optimal utilization of scarce resources.
Project Management and Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge management is of crucial importance to efficient construction project management. The growing complexity of project work means that an increasing number of technical and social relationships / interfaces must be taken into account by project managers in adapting knowledge and experiences from earlier projects. Project team members frequently need to learn things that are already known in other similar projects; in effect they need to acquire and assimilate knowledge that resides in organizational memory. The effectiveness in doing this in an organization determines their personal effectiveness, project’s effectiveness and ultimately the company's effectiveness.
Normally within functional organizations, there are established departments and branches in which knowledge and experiences are acquired and stored. Project teams know that they can access this knowledge and experience from the documented records of a specific department, or from observing the competent employees and their working processes.
It is some what different in construction projects because the team members of particular projects are the main conduits of knowledge and experience of daily work. In an ideal situation, knowledge from a completed projects or current projects has to be transferred to subsequent on going projects. However, this is not the case in most of the projects. More often than not, project information is infrequently captured, retained or indexed so that the people external to that project within the organization can share, regain and apply to its future projects.
At its simplest, a failure to review the finished project means that the project errors are likely to be repeated. Construction project organizations can fail to learn from their mistakes without realising the importance of such knowledge. The important pieces of data or knowledge that they require for subsequent project are in there somewhere, but no one has the time to peruse all the recorded materials and locate the relevant data-(Table 1)
| REASON |
RESPONSES % |
| Lack of employee time |
67.0 |
| Lack of management support |
62.5 |
| Lack of incentive |
53.7 |
| Lack of resources |
53.1 |
| Lack of clear guide lines |
52.3 |
| Lack of support from other organisations |
32.2 |
| Our process does not capture useful lessons |
21.9 |
| Data repository too hard to search |
20.9 |
| Lessons are not transferable |
13.3 |
| Wrong people are involved |
8.8 |
| We already put in enough effort |
8.4 |
Table 1: the main reasons for not putting effort into the lessons learned process.
Therefore of what earthly use is the data that is not put use at appropriate time? Project based companies should develop a system for collecting and collating data in a manner that it becomes a meaningful whole.
The task of collecting data should not be relegated to an unavoidable obligation in the process of project closure despite the pressures and deadlines a project team has to meet. There should be a commitment by the team to undertake the exercise of collating project data, preserving and utilising the same at appropriate time in everyday work of project team.
Project based organization must clearly understand sorts of knowledge that should be included in an effective knowledge management system. In this regard, knowledge bases can be categorized under three headings for implementation in project.
- An'organization knowledge base', which includes the knowledge specific to organizations and environments in which the projects are implemented.
- A'project management knowledge base', which includes the knowledge of the theory of application of project management.
- A'project specific knowledge base', which includes specific knowledge acquired during the implementation of a particular project.
The organizational knowledge relates to techniques, technologies, work processes and costs etc., that are involved in discipline specific issues of the project.
Project management knowledge relates to the methods and procedures required for managing the implementation of the projects; and
Project related knowledge, refers to knowledge about the customer and other people or stakeholders that are important for future business of the company.
This knowledge which is previously held only by project team members now becomes the organizational knowledge in the memory of the company. Consequently, this is put to use by other project team members of the company.
Obstacles and Hurdles to Knowledge Transfer
In a project based organization, there are several obstacles and hurdles which obstruct easy transfer of knowledge from one project to another within the organization. Reasons for this could be many such as
- Team members from one completed project will have to take over another project some times even with an overlap of time.
- Paucity of time and pressure of work takes precedence over necessity for review of a completed project and document the knowledge and experiences derived from it.
- Hesitation towards honest and open analysis of failures and mistakes.
- Socio-economic background that prevent clear communication and documentation.
- Motivation to undertake a proper review of the problem etc.,
- Lack of leadership within the organisation to promote knowledge sharing.
How To Outcome Obstacles And Hurdles
A project based orgnisation should put in efforts to make this knowledge sharing / knowledge management as a part of its culture. An organisations culture serves its function for its management systems and practices because the organisation culture provides norms regarding the "right" and "wrong" ways of operation. Organisation culture stabilises the firms' method of operation. The over all project plan for execution of the project should include "lessons learnt" as a part of the project execution plan to be documented at the end of the project.
Effective ways of sorting useful from useless information would ensure over load of information.
Organisation should ensure social interaction within one project team to another project team to ensure knowledge transfer.
IT cannot on its own ensure knowledge transfer without the help of communication among people. Therefore, communication within the organisation, within the team leaders becomes very essential.
Benefits of Knowledge Management
Lot of theoretical work has been done by various people in the field over the necessity of knowledge management. There are number of reasons why knowledge management should become a part of the cultural organisation.
- Project managers learn how to manage experientially and it's important to reflect and gain these lessons.
- Learnt lessons from project can help in risk analysis during the initial planning of the next project.
- Lessons learnt from projects could be utilised to improving project management processes.
- It could be used to improve in decision making.
- Lessons learnt procedures are important to disseminate knowledge within the project team.
- Lessons learnt are useful for bench marking.
- This could also help in assessing the performance of the personnel.
Conclusion
It is very crucial for project based organisation to inculcate a culture to accept, adopt and utilise knowledge transfer activities.
It is undoubtedly evident that large project based organisations knowledge sharing within the organisation through various processes is of utmost importance to be able to survive in the age of innovation and competition.
References
1.Mian M Ajmal and Kaj U Koskinen; Knowledge Transfer in Project Based Organisations: An Organisational Culture Perspective, Project Management Journal - March 2008.
2.Post project reviews to gain effective lessons learned - Terry Williams, Phd. PMP
Patricia M. Carrillo, Chimay J. Anumba, John M. Kamara
3.Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University. Knowledge management strategy for construction: Key I.T. and contextual issues