Andy JordanPresident| Roffensian Consulting S.A.Cherry Grove, AB, Canada
It often strikes me that the need for knowledge transfer is one of those things that is taken for granted on projects. While many areas of work are planned in great detail and tracked conscientiously during the execution of work, knowledge transfer is just 'bolted on' at the end, rarely with any quality metrics.
Have any of you been able to establish knowledge transfer as more integral to the work, and if so, how did you make that happen? Saving Changes...
Michael AdamsSolutions Architect| LANLLos Alamos, Nm, United States
Andy, this is a really excellent question. The topic never really occurred to me before, but your observations are right on!
I take knowledge transfer pretty seriously, I'm known for high caliber documentation, but I cant say that my organization has actually addressed this. We have no process or standard.
Knowledge transfer seems to be a take what you can get, and it depends very much on who is PM, and who is on their team.
Do you have a methodology that you employ? Saving Changes...
Richard BelangerPresident| Dianous LLCIndianapolis, In, United States
I believe that knowledge transfer should be viewed as a concept that occurs throughout the project life line. Teams that are purposeful to discuss the concept are always better for it. Knowledge transfer does not need to be relegated to a database of ideas at the end of a project. Every interaction, hand off, phase gate etc. has knowledge that can be shared with others. I once read an article where a team managed their entire project along the lines of knowledge transfer. Saving Changes...
Andy, This is such an integral part of project management to which if we neglect, we have to pay the price and I believe there should be some amount of time and cost dedicated to this item. This can really shake and bring catastrophically domino effect e.g. what if 20 of the resource in a team of 50 resign at once and there was no such knowledge transfer ( I have had the situation when a team of 7 out of 10 resigned all at once for their own reasons.).
I took this up from the same very point when senior lot resigned and a major customer change request was kicked off. It was pretty much like a design change that had an impact on overall application. We took up the challenge and agreed with client to conduct requirement workshops.
We did implement the solution and documented everything related right from requirements to design to implementation / configuration.
Every new resource once joined, training includes these artifacts and we kept updating them side by side. This activity was planned with the due approval of required Stakeholders.
Even resource leave or requirement change, we have the base work documentation and knowledge with us.
Saving Changes...
Bibhu PandaSenior Project Manager| Arisglobal pvt ltdBangalore, Karnataka, India
Andy, this is such a wonderful question and which gets lost in the myriad activities that a project manager gets involved in. While the responsibility of ensuring that the knowledge transfer activities are taken care of is bestowed upon the project manager, the culture that is fostered at an organization plays a key role in ensuring that the knowledge becomes explicit from implicit by documentation and other activities. In my case , I ensure that everything gets documented and a the team is encouraged to have an environment of mutual respcet and cooperation which helps in creating and sharing knowledge across the team. Saving Changes...
Andy JordanPresident| Roffensian Consulting S.A.Cherry Grove, AB, Canada
Resurrecting this after the holidays......
I think culture is an important point, organizations do have to 'live' this. Documentation is often the focus, and while that's a valuable tool in the process there has to be a willingness and ability to use the tool effectively if knowledge transfer is going to occur (and of course documentation must be effective).
In many organizations that cultural commitment is missing, often without the organization realizing it. Saving Changes...
First, the PMI covers very little on the topic knowledge management (including knowledge transfer, which is already an error), so to answer your question, very few companies today benefit from KM in their projects. Now the companies that best use of KM are the most innovative (eg. 3M, Google, P & G, Toyota ...) because these companies have a process of creation, sharing and use of knowledge very well structured, different enterprises "common. "
I believe even the KM theme should be an area of knowledge in the PMBOK, because the amount of knowledge that creates, shares and uses the projects are very high, and even then it is not given due importance, because the guide summarizes knowledge as lessons learned, which is a serious mistake.
As we live in an era and the knowledge economy, and with it (knowledge), the main asset of the economy and innovation itself, nothing the theme wiser to take its due importance including PMBOK.
Sorry for the English, I am Brazilian experts in the field (KM), but not expert in the language rsrs Saving Changes...
I would consider knowledge management and transfer of relevant knowledge to right destinations as one of the responsibilities of PMO. We cannot blame PMI for everything as they are establishing standards and guidelines, and it is not their responsibility to give descriptive methodologies for knowledge transfer. As a PMP and a professional, it becomes the responsibility of the practitioner to ensure smooth knowledge transfer like populating lessons learnt in organizational process assets. I have no doubt that someday PMI will come out with a practice standard for project knowledge management, because thry are open to suggestions. Projectmanagement.com is an example of knowledge base. Saving Changes...
Manas De AminDirector| Computer Technology Group KolkataKolkata, West Bengal, India
Yes, truly it needs to be embedded in the Org culture. I have seen instances when nobody pays any heed to what has been documented by a team member. It also creates a culture where team members become secretive about their knowledge and skills.
I have experience of organisations where KM became a damp squib due to lack of support by PMs, Line Managers and Functional Managers. Saving Changes...
Vidyasagar UddagiriDy Head of Technology Practice - Automotive & Industrials Business Unit| Tata Consultancy ServicesSecunderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
As part of Project Closure activities, the PMBoK implicitly mentions that Lessons Learnt, Best Practices etc have to be documented as project assets and updated into the organization repository.
However there is no monitoring around if this is effectively done in many organizations which result in re-inventing the wheel many a times. It is more of a discipline which needs to come out of self interest of the project team, however it can be enforced via audits / reviews but the quality of the same cannot be evaluated since it is more subjective. Saving Changes...
Currently (at least in Asian Gulf region) knowledge transfer or more broadly Knowledge management as highlighted by Everton Michels
is limited to capturing lessons learnt during execution of the project and mostly during project closeout. Also management goes after HOW MANY lessons have been captured rather than the quality and resultant effect of the lessons captured.
However, what is required is to utilize those lessons learnt during subsequent project effectively, which is missing mostly. It is rather important to focus on real Knowledge Management - Managing the knowledge within the project and organization.
Saving Changes...
