Communicating Captured Knowledge

Capturing and using lessons learned more effectively is one of the ways in which the management of project-generated knowledge can financially benefit the company. The production of 'lessons learned' reports is seen as beneficial to the organisation, provided they reach the appropriate parties. Furthermore, the dissemination of the knowledge contained in these reports should not have to wait until the completion of a project. It is recommended that during the life cycle of a project, reports be treated as a 'knowledge bulletin,' which is used any time there is a need for written communication of some aspect of technical knowledge to the wider organisation. The content should include a 'lesson learned,' identify 'what went well,' suggest an improvement opportunity, and so forth. If companies were to use such project-generated knowledge bulletins, they should be in standard form, or template, which would include key project details in a specified format to facilitate its tracing and storage. The feedback content is best left as 'free format,' adopting the approach of trying not to force the knowledge into a rigid system, and allowing the author's anecdotal style to best convey the details. In the normal course of a project, or whenever else necessary, a bulletin would be prepared and issued-to a technet, newsgroup, or technical specialist, as appropriate. When a project is completed, all bulletins prepared during its course and as part of the post- project review under cover of a 'project close' form, and be fed the project documentation under cover of a modified project close and validation form, and fed into the company-wide information sharing system. Not only will this approach facilitate the communication of knowledge at an early stage in a project's life, but it will help prevent the knowledge from being forgotten, as could happen if the feedback process were deferred until the completion of the project. Guided keywords will assist database searching by knowledge seekers. As part of the project close-out, any separate soft-copy files can be linked and indexed to the main form in the database. Communication of the content of the form would be by several mechanisms such as: direct hard or soft copy circulation to relevant local staff; electronic circulation to relevant staff in other offices via technets and newsgroups; and storage in a database for future search access. It would also naturally be stored in the project files, but without any real expectation of that ever being a primary search location once the project has been archived.