Management of project knowledge and experiences: The role of technologies and social processes

Modern organizations have to react fast and be flexible to innovative and multidisciplinary questions. Therefore, organizing by projects is on a strong increase, particularly, in the engineering sector. Projects are accepted to be learning intensive organizational forms. Each project involves the production or provision of a one-of-a-kind product or service. During a project, team-members continuously encounter new problems for which, where possible, a new solution is devised. This results in the development of knowledge and experiences that is valuable organizational asset and can be an important resource for the following projects. This is rarely, if at all documented and reused. In simple terms, valuable knowledge and experience gained is lost. What remains is stored in the minds of those who where a part of the problem and the solution. This paper examines the role of information and communication technologies as well as social processes in the management of project knowledge and experiences. This is achieved through literature review and interviews with project managers and engineers.