Developing project communities of practice-based knowledge management system in construction

The knowledge can be reused and shared among the involved engineers and experts to improve the construction process and reduce the time and cost of solving problems. This paper proposes a new and practical methodology to capture and represent construction project knowledge by using project-based Communities of practice (CoPs) approach. Using project-based CoPs concepts, project participants and engineers can get an overview of available knowledge in core project areas and take appropriate management in tacit and explicit knowledge. This study proposes a Construction Project CoPs-based Knowledge Management (ConPCKM) system for use by general contractors during the construction phase. The ConPCKM is then applied in selected case study of a construction building project in Taiwan to verify the proposed methodology and demonstrate the effectiveness of sharing knowledge. The combined results demonstrate that a ConPCKM-like system can be an effective tool for tacit knowledge management by utilizing the CoPs approach and web technology.