Knowledge Management in the World of Project Management
- Keren Trosler
- Apr 30, 2008
- 5 min read
Introduction
Project management has become a central field in the business world in recent years. Project managers are among the busiest professionals and possess particularly large amounts of knowledge.
Unfortunately, project managers' heavy workloads cause them to focus on collecting and analyzing the specific information required for their ongoing work. This focus on their "small piece of the puzzle" leads to limited knowledge sharing among themselves and the rest of the organization.
Since project managers are central knowledge hubs in the organization and the information they deal with is core to operations, it's important to share this information.
There are various ways to share knowledge, and sharing methods derive from knowledge needs. In this review, we will present the knowledge needs in project management, possible solutions to address these needs, and challenges facing knowledge management in project management.
Knowledge Needs in Project Management
In the world of project management, there are several main needs:
Current information on a specific project
Obtaining an integrative picture of multiple projects
Visual display of progress status for a single project and multiple projects
A defined place where questions can be asked and opinions received from professional colleagues
Building on lessons learned from previous projects
Use of shared templates and formats
Use of deliverables from parallel projects and past projects to shorten and streamline work processes
Use of knowledge repositories to reduce time spent fixing issues during development phases
Ability to track progress of project phases and identify weak links in the process that have not fulfilled their part
Sharing data, information, and knowledge and presenting them more clearly and conveniently can address these needs, or at least some of them, and greatly improve the work of project managers. This way, all cards are on the table, progress status is visible to everyone, work partners enjoy knowledge sharing, mutual learning and cross-fertilization, and process transparency is maintained.
It's also important to note that exposing the individual progress of each entity in a project creates competition among all partners, which serves as an incentive for improvement.
Possible Solutions to Address the Needs
Various solutions can be implemented to address the knowledge management needs mentioned. Each solution should be tailored to the specific need.
Dashboard
Presents vital organizational information visually and sophisticatedly at a glance, like an extended ID card, and allows for a deeper examination of the data. The Dashboard draws data from operational systems in the organization, performs calculations or applies formulas to them, and presents the results visually. For example, a dashboard can display in a "One stop shop" an overall picture of all projects using a component or technology, showing all issues recorded for the component or in the context of the specific technology, known problems, etc. The information displayed on the dashboard is the most up-to-date information, which interests employees and managers alike (for a review from the April 2007 issue on dashboards).
This solution addresses the need for information on a specific project, obtaining an integrative picture of multiple projects, and visualizing the progress status of a single project and multiple projects.
Discussion Group (Forum)
Allows each user to present a question and direct it to colleagues participating in the forum. This solution is recommended especially when it is unknown which colleague knows the answer or where it can be found. There are different types of forums: open forums, where anyone is authorized to post a question and publish an answer; closed forums, where approval is required to publish a question and only an authorized entity is permitted to publish an answer; and additional options along this spectrum. The more open the forum is, the more sharing we enable, but we risk publishing incorrect answers to questions.
This solution addresses the need for a defined place where questions can be asked and opinions received from professional colleagues, and also enables learning from experiences and lessons learned in previous projects instead of "wasting" time on reinvention.
Experts Map
This repository manages the list of knowledge holders and their specializations. It is an online list that includes information about position holders, their capabilities, skills, and the connections between them. The experts map provides a profile of the employee's expertise and their area of specialization.
This solution enables information about professionals and experts utilized in previous projects, instead of experimenting anew with inexperienced suppliers.
Integrative View from MS Project
This is another tool for presenting data and information from several projects simultaneously. It involves extracting data from operational systems and presenting it after performing certain calculations, providing added value to the user. The integration can be expressed in the combined presentation of multiple projects, in presenting data from different screens in the same operational system, or in presenting data from multiple operational systems.
This solution allows for obtaining an integrative picture of the status of multiple projects, either visually (in combination with a dashboard) or otherwise.
In addition to answering specific needs, these solutions serve as tools that assist employees during their ongoing work. The fact that they provide added value helps increase the system's attractiveness to users.
Challenges
We would not present a complete picture if we didn't mention the challenges that accompany knowledge management in relation to project management.
A major and central challenge is the workload placed on project managers. Their position as a central knowledge hub derives from their involvement in many different projects. This affects the extensive knowledge they can bring to the system but minimizes the time they can invest in the knowledge management project.
Another challenge related to the lack of time is that one cannot expect an employee to enter data into multiple systems. For this reason, and for the work to be performed with maximum efficiency and to avoid duplicate entry as much as possible, information should be mirrored from the operational systems to the knowledge management system. Although creating the interface between the systems involves a financial cost, entering the information in one place and reflecting it in relevant locations saves errors and double entry. This mirroring allows for the creation of a true professional workspace.
To address these challenges and leverage project management for success, knowledge management must be integrated in a structured way into work processes. If not, the initiative will likely not be driven forward, let alone maintained as a living and breathing system.
Summary
Today's project management world is changing rapidly, and the knowledge required by employees is diverse and extensive. Knowledge management in general, and the tools we mentioned in particular, allow for externalizing and making data and information accessible to employees in a fast, intuitive, and simple way, thus helping employees perform their work in the best possible manner.
We recommend using these tools to provide added value to users. Still, we emphasize again that to achieve the desired and most up-to-date result, the presentation must be clear and based on reliable and accurate data.
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