Knowledge Management Within and Across Projects

1. Knowledge Management Within and Across Projects June 15, 2012 INNOVATION for a better world

2. Today’s Discussion Map UNDERSTANDING KNOWLEDGE How can a Project Manager Manage Knowledge ? What are classes and types of knowledge matter to projects? PLANNING A STRATEGY MANAGING KNOWLEDGE How do you make sure that your team has the knowledge it needs? What can you do to help knowledge flow to those who need it?

3. Sharing Experiences and Challenges What knowledge do you need? • What knowledge managementchallenges have you faced as a PM? • What types of knowledge does a project manager need? • What types of knowledge doesyour project team need? Understanding Knowledge

4. Classes and Types of Knowledge Project knowledge falls into three classes, two types • Three Classes of Knowledge • Foundational – Includes knowledge fundamental to all Project Management • Organizational – Includes corporate databases, processes, capabilities, and cultural norms • Project Specific – Includes Knowledge that applies only to a specific project • Two Types of knowledge • Explicit – Information that is unambiguous and has been clearly expressed or recorded • Tacit – Things that are known without being openly spoken, expressed, or recorded Understanding Knowledge

5. Classes and Types of Knowledge • Different types and classes of knowledge pose different challenges and require different management strategies • PMs are most concerned with Project-Specific knowledge Understanding Knowledge

6. Knowledge Mgt Tools and Approaches • What tools have you used to manage knowledge on your projects? What approaches have you seen others use? KM Toolsets

7. Knowledge Management “Tools” • Many organizations have adopted products or developed proprietary tools to help manage project knowledge • These often reside in SharePoint or portal applications and include • Content Management solutions for storing, retrieving and/or managing the production of documentation • Templates and processes (some automated) to support reporting and performing standard PM tasks • Databases of Best Practices and Guidelines • Some metadata or pointers to “who knows what” • But most of these toolsets only support half of the knowledge that a project needs Automated KM toolsets can only manage explicit knowledge

8. Tacit Knowledge is Harder to Manage • Much of the most valuable project knowledge is tacit– • It resides only in the minds of your project team • It can only be managed if it is captured and made explicit • At best, IT tools can provide metadata or pointers to the location of that knowledge • An effective KM strategy requires understanding the flow of knowledge across your team to ensure that it is available when needed To understanding knowledge flow among your project you must think of your project team as a system

9. What is a System? • System Attributes • A set of components • That are organized • To interact with each other • And work together • To achieve a defined purpose • May be open or closed, and simple or complex • Have boundaries • Think of your project team as a system • What are the boundaries? • What are the components? • How do they interact? A set of organized, interacting components that work together to achieve a defined purpose

10. Knowledge Sharing within the Project System • Your project team is a system with several components that each need knowledge to do their job; knowledge sharing is one of the way that the components interact • What do the components, and the system as a whole, need to know to succeed? • Despite your best efforts, you cannot know everything • As a PM, you know things that your team does not know, such as: • “Big picture” perspectives • Client and Management plans and priorities • But your team knows things that you do not know, such as: • Tacit knowledge (skills and abilities) • Personal experiences, perspectives, and plans What does your team need to know?

11. Use the Known-Unknown Matrix • Provides a framework for understanding knowledge among the members of your team Do you know what you know? Do you know what your team knows? What don’t you or your team know?

12. Conduct a Project Knowledge Audit • Define the boundaries of the relevant system • Review project tasks to identify needed knowledge • Apply the Known-Unknown Matrix to yourself and to all members of the system to assess • What knowledge do YOU need as PM? • What knowledge does each team member need? • What critical knowledge is vulnerable to loss? • What unknowns may pose threats? • Consult with team members • What are their unmet knowledge needs? • Based on that audit, identify your real and potential knowledge gaps • What knowledge do you need to develop? • What knowledge do you need to protect? Define Your Knowledge Needs

13. Conduct a knowledge risk assessment • Evaluate each of the real or potential knowledge gaps • For knowledge the project needs and does not have • When and where is the knowledge needed? • Is that need on the critical path? • How can the knowledge be obtained? • How severe is the risk to the project if the knowledge is not obtained before it is needed? • For knowledge the project has and needs to protect • When and where is the knowledge needed? • Is that need on the critical path? • How likely is the project to lose the knowledge (e.g., is it held by a single individual and how likely is that individual to be lost to the project?) • Are there other sources to obtain the knowledge if the current source is lost? • How severe is the risk to the project if the knowledge is not available when needed? Prioritize the risks based on potential impact and likelihood

14. Develop a knowledge management strategy • Fully leverage any available toolsets for managing explicit knowledge • Document everything practical - Make what you can explicit • Remain consistent with organizational KM strategies and standards • Add additional strategies to develop, retain, and leverage tacit knowledge • Make the tacit explicit by documenting lessons learned and capturing processes in a medium that encourages future retrieval and use • Encourage team members to learn from each other through increased networking and/or “brown-bag lunch presentations to share knowledge • Establish task-sharing to encourage flow of knowledge across staff • Take steps to retain critical staff and keep them engaged • Take steps to proactively ensure that knowledge is provided where and when needed • Develop, or encourage participation in, communities of practice • Proven KM Principles include: • People learn from each other when they work socialize and work together • Redundancy and unstructured time can encourage knowledge flow and reduce associated risks What other knowledge sharing strategies have you seen used within projects?

15. Sharing knowledge across projects • Establish, or encourage participation in, communities of practice (internal and external) • Conduct and document post-mortems to identify best practices and capture lessons learned • Develop and maintain directories of who knows what and pointers to knowledge repositories • Establish databases of good ideas and encourage people to add to, and mine these databases • Encourage social networking strategies that facilitate sharing, cross-fertilizing, and developing ideas Manage knowledge flow

16. Key Take-Aways • IT tools can manage explicit knowledge, but tacit knowledge operates within an organizational system • Conduct a knowledge audit based on an objective assessment of what is needed and what is known and unknown • Prioritize needs and develop strategies to meet those needs • Implement initiatives to address both global and specific project needs • Encourage social networking strategies to facilitate sharing, cross-fertilizing, and developing ideas • Leverage IT to support and facilitate KM initiatives where possible

17. Additional Information • Knowledge Managementby Carl Frappaolo • Mastering Organizational Knowledge Flow – How to Make Knowledge Sharing Workby Frank Leistner

18. Contact Information • Internet • www.dbainnovation.com • Address • 4000 Legato RoadSuite 1100Fairfax, Virginia 22033 • Bill Yoder, Principal • eMail: bill.yoder@dbainnovation.com • Tel: (703) 599-7850