Project management instruments and the barriers to inter-project learning: Re-inventing the wheel or learning from other projects

Project management instruments and the barriers to inter-project learning: Re-inventing the wheel or learning from other projects

De Gans, M.

Filippov, S. (mentor)
Mooi, H.G. (mentor)
Groenleer, M.L.P. (mentor)

Technology, Policy and Management

Management of Technology

Management of Technology

2010-12-13

Large infrastructure projects in the Netherlands are often subject to discussion due to large time and cost overruns. Project management instruments are developed by the projects for the efficient management of time, cost and scope. These collections of methods, tools and approaches are often modified and further developed when projects face problems and situations that are not encountered before. When projects find solutions for problems in the complex world of large infrastructure problems, other projects might benefit from these developments as well. However, the literature study in this thesis shows that projects often re-invent the wheel instead of learning from other projects. Therefore, the main research question in this master thesis is to what degree the large infrastructure projects in the Netherlands share and implement knowledge about their developed instruments, and what might be the possible barriers that disturb this process of inter-project learning. First, a literature study is performed where all topics in the area of organizational learning, knowledge management, inter-project learning and learning barriers are explored. The findings of this study are used to develop a framework that can be used to describe the knowledge activities that are performed by the projects in the process of inter-project learning and the barriers that prevent that projects learn from each other. This framework connects learning processes inside projects with learning processes between different projects. The framework identifies four steps of knowledge activities: creation of knowledge, evaluation of knowledge, sharing of knowledge and implementation of knowledge. The barriers are present in the framework between the ‘share’ and the ‘implement’ steps and are grouped in four categories: social, organizational, project-related and knowledge- related. The developed framework is used in case studies where 14 large infrastructure projects in the Netherlands are researched. Project managers and operational project managers (managers projectbeheersing) of these projects are interviewed in order to find out which instruments are developed in the projects, how the projects deal with the knowledge activities in the four steps of the framework and what the possible barriers to learning are. The findings show that the two barriers that are identified most are the uniqueness of projects that makes it difficult to implement knowledge from a project with a different context and the lack of a higher level knowledge management system, that establishes knowledge connections between the different projects in a structured way. The main conclusions that can be drawn from this research are that all kinds of project management instruments are developed and that the projects are willing to share these developments with other projects. However, they are not able to see which knowledge is required in the other projects. A recommendation is to let the functional organizations use a higher level knowledge management system. People or a department from the functional organization that are on a higher level above the individual projects, should fulfill the role of ‘knowledge broker’. By having contact with the projects on a regular basis, they keep an overview of the knowledge supply and the knowledge demand. With this system, projects that can learn from each other are connected in a structured way, based on the overview of created knowledge in one project and the problems that are faced in the other project. Inter-project learning would also be more effective when more knowledge is transferred between projects that are in the same project phase, instead of only transferring knowledge between new projects and projects that are already in a later phase or are even completed. Knowledge transfers between projects that are in the same phase are more effective because direct interaction is possible, even as sharing of tasks and mutual adjustment.

project management
inter-project learning
knowledge management
learning barriers
infrastructure
public projects

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2ee9ef08-14fc-4414-847a-efe3684f2d07

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2010 De Gans, M.