Knowledge Managmenet: Barriers to Managing Project Knowledge Assets (Part 2 of 3)

In order to examine challenges involved in project knowledge management, we need to first consider the definition of a project – “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service”. In our opinion, the very nature of a project creates barriers to knowledge management. In this article, we will explore this claim, and consider how this extends to knowledge between and within projects.

In Part 1 of this series, we mentioned the three areas of project knowledge – organizational and cultural knowledge, general PM knowledge, and knowledge specific to the project. Each of these requires a particular management framework, and each presents its own challenges.

Organizational Memory

A project driven organization generates its own Organizational Knowledge from past projects, sometimes called Organizational Memory (OM). However, if mechanisms are not in place to capture this OM, project teams can become frustrated at the lack of historical data and feel like they are reinventing the wheel continually. This type of knowledge is very difficult to capture in a project environment, as the temporary and stressful nature of a project deflects team members attention away from knowledge capture, and towards the key project drivers, such as cost, schedule and scope... Read more

Author: Raymond Poole, Managing Director of PMIS