Knowledge Management in Project-Based Organisations

1 Knowledge Management in project -BasedOrganisations:The Success Criteria and Best PractisesMaster of Science Thesis in the Master s Programme International ProjectManagementALEXANDER ALEKSEEVD epartment of Civil and Environmental EngineeringDivision of Construction ManagementCHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGYNORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITYG teborg, Sweden 2010 Master s Thesis 2010:140 MASTER S THESIS 2010:140 Knowledge Management in project -BasedOrganisations:The Success Criteria and Best PractisesMasterof Science Thesis in the Master s Programme International ProjectManagementALEXANDER ALEKSEEVD epartment of Civil and Environmental EngineeringDivision ofConstruction Management CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGYNORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITYG teborg, Sweden 2010 Knowledge Management in Project-Based Organisations .

2 The Success Criteria and Best PractisesMaster of Science Thesis in the Master s Programme International ProjectManagementALEXANDER ALEKSEEV ALEXANDER ALEKSEEV, 2010 Examensarbete / Institutionen f r bygg- och milj teknik,Chalmers tekniska h gskola2010:140 Department of Civil and Environmental EngineeringDivision of Construction ManagementChalmers University of TechnologyNorthumbria Universit ySE-412 96 G teborgSwedenTelephone: + 46 (0)31-772 1000 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering G teborg, Sweden 2010 IKnowledge Management in Project-Based Organisations .

3 The Success Criteria and Best PractisesMaster of Science Thesis in the Master s Programme International ProjectManagementALEXANDER ALEKSEEVD epartment of Civil and Environmental EngineeringDivision ofConstruction ManagementChalmers University of TechnologyNorthumbria Universit yABSTRACTThis study expounds 31 aspects of Knowledge Management such as corporatememory, mentorship programs, professional networks, etc., whose impact onsuccessfulness of project delivery was assessed through the survey in 40 project -basedorganisations.

4 The purpose of the study is to highlight contemporary vision on projectsuccess and to justify the fact that appropriate Management of Knowledge is able toenhance project results. Relying on the theoretical framework the questionnaire wascompiled and covered five relevant to Knowledge Management areas includingorganisational culture aspects. Questionnaire was used in tandem with interviews toclarify particular parts of the survey. The observation revealed that application ofknowledge Management practices has influence on project success criteria and canimprove the process of successful project delivery.

5 There is also a necessity forfurther research which arises from certain limitations of the study. Further researchshould cover those Knowledge Management practices that have not been investigatedin this study and more deeply investigate those practices that showed the mostsignificant correlation with project words: project Management ; Success criteria; Project-Based Organisations ;Organisational learning; Knowledge Civil and Environmental Engineering, Master s Thesis 2010:140 IIIC ontents1 Scope of the Parameters to the Structure of this paper22 THEORETICAL The project Management Portfolio project Management organisation and Project-Based Organisational project project project success Critical success Knowledge Knowledge and Organisational Communities of Knowledge life cycle Explicit and tacit Knowledge creation and

6 Knowledge refinement, transfer and Knowledge storage and KM in an organisational and project Organisational culture: motivation and KM tools: information and communication KM success in organisational and project Summary and main findings of literature review313 Research approach selection Research Quantitative data Quantitative data Data analysis34 CHALMERS,Civil and Environmental Engineering, Master s Thesis 2010:140IV4 Organisational Organisational project Management KM KM tools445 The iron Client Sharing of organisational values and meeting of strategic Learning from High level of innovative Understanding among Acceptance of Avoiding corporate memory Contributions and implications516 Further research547 REFERENCES558 BIBLIOGRAPHY639 APPENDIX A

7 (INTERVIEWS)6410 APPENDIX B (QUESTIONNAIRE)66 CHALMERS Civil and Environmental Engineering, Master s Thesis 2010:140 VPrefaceOver two last decades Knowledge Management has evolved from an emergent conceptand became the common practice in many Organisations . It is a paradox that onlyrecently the problem of systematic managing of Knowledge started to be addressedwithin the project Management discipline. The author s great interest to the problemrelies on his previous experience participation in projects, educational background anddesire to investigate the problem of Knowledge Management in terms of projects moredeeply.

8 This study is aimed to develop the question of applicability knowledgemanagement practices for achievement better project results, since this problem hasnot yet being investigated teborg September 2010 Alexander AlekseevCHALMERS,Civil and Environmental Engineering, Master s Thesis 2010:140 VINotationsRoman upper case lettersMMean valuesNNumber of deviation, a measure of statistical dispersionRoman lower case lettersbDenotes the estimated regression coefficientrDenotes the correlation between the independent variable and thedependent variabletValue for b*p< **p< **p< ,Civil and Environmental Engineering, Master s Thesis 2010:14011 IntroductionProjects mainly considered as temporary processes which are, roughly speaking, notexisting after they were finished.

9 In turn Knowledge Management considers theproblems of continuous learning, which cause the problem of Knowledge inheritancein project context. At the same time, Knowledge is an area of arising interest inorganisations and a source of competitive advantage for many managing of Knowledge is claimed to be able to enhance organisationalperformance. Therefore in order to address the problem of Knowledge in projects wasused the concept of Project-Based organisation which being continuous structure stilloperates with temporary processes.

10 Thus this study intends to investigate the bestpractices of Knowledge Management and evaluate their applicability in terms of the studyThrough the detailed literature review, this research intends to define project successcriteria and highlight best practices for managing Knowledge . In order to verifyassumptions regarding correlation between those two factors and to build moredetailed understanding, an investigation in Project-Based Organisations will beperformed. Both a questionnaire- based quantitative method and a qualitative method, based on interviews, will be applied for this investigate to what extent Knowledge Management practices may influence theproject in terms of its successful delivery and to identify Knowledge managementapproaches that have most significant impact on successful project to the studyThe research developed four main questions.