ABSTRACT
Management by projects is becoming common. Organizations see projects embracing peculiar features that provide flexibility and adaptable solutions to the challenges, changes, and problems they face. However, it is also these peculiar features of projects that make knowledge management even more important in projects. Without such deliberate management efforts, knowledge assets will be lost once the project is completed. This results in organizational knowledge fragmentation and the loss of organizational learning. Successful project management is based, on the one hand, on accumulated knowledge and, on the other hand, on individual and collective competences. Because of the uniqueness of the product produced or service rendered, project organizations need to create new knowledge and learn throughout the project life cycle so that they can meet the project objectives as well as complete them successfully. The amount of new knowledge generated in a project depends on the novelty and uniqueness of the expected product. However, it is often argued that the processes involved are more or less similar even though the projects are unique. As a result, most projects do not need to start anew; those involved can learn from what has been done in previous projects. In other words, historical data, information, knowledge, and experience are valuable. Project deliveries can be enhanced through the integration of lessons learned from previous projects. Moreover, the tight schedules of projects make the reuse of knowledge necessary. Projects are often required to be completed within a relatively short period of time. Without the reuse of existing knowledge, project organizations have to create solutions to every problem they face. Projects are further characterized by the temporary assemblage of experts with diverse expertise and from various backgrounds. The project organizations will be disbanded once the project is completed, and these experts will be absorbed by their own organizations and engaged in other projects. Sometimes, personnel may be relocated before a project is finished. This high fluctuation of experts produces a need to keep the important part of their knowledge within the company before they leave, so that the lessons learned are not dispersed along with the personnel themselves. Finally, knowledge is seen as a strategic asset and a primary resource for competitive advantage; thus, the possibility to gain from earlier projects becomes central, not just to save time and money but also to avoid “reinventing the wheel,” which results from the failure to capture and transfer project knowledge. However, unlike permanent organizations, projects do not have any organizational memory: they are only temporary organizations. In comparison with organizations that are supported by structure and routines to absorb knowledge, projects do not support any natural transfer mechanism. Deliberate management efforts and incentives are crucial to the creation, capture and transfer of knowledge. For instance, lessons learned have tobe socialized consciously among individuals before they leave the project. The absence of knowledge 205 management will make projects unable to contribute to any improvement of the organizational business processes. Lack of improvement will eventually lead to an obsolete business process.
