Whitepaper Author

Synergy between tacit and explicit knowledge—Andrew Dahal

Synergy between tacit and explicit knowledge: Key to effective project management, a case of Nepal

In projects undertaken in a country like Nepal, specifically in the construction sector, the idea of knowledge management has been a burning issue for a considerable amount of time. Standard project management practices in Nepal being at the early stages, the idea of accommodating tacit and explicit knowledge with a view to assisting project managers and their team in better managing the projects is proposed which is also viewed as being able to set an example for the upcoming project leaders. Significant number of researches have shown the benefit of synergy between tacit and explicit knowledge in case of project setting and also in organizational setting as well. Despite the differences that occur among the subject matter experts working together in projects, consideration of how knowledge is acquired and how the context of the situation could play a decisive role in people applying their knowledge into action paves a way for effective project management. The paper focuses on the reflection of an event that had occurred in a construction project in Nepal and addresses how consideration of use of both tacit and explicit knowledge would have helped to improve the situation. Also the paper briefly highlights the mindset of project managers in a high-power distance culture and its effect on the execution of projects.

Author: Andrew Dahal
Review status: Postgraduate assignment (University of Technology Sydney)

Agile innovation in project management

Whereas classic project management is largely considered prescriptive, agile project management seeks to develop the vision of the future and the ability to explore, which is why it is ideal for innovation activities, writes Rami Shakour.

Identifying the warning signs of project failure

Reasons for project failure have not changed, so organisations now focus less on the causes of failure and more on early warning signs and response mechanisms, writes Jacob Silver.

How knowledge management bridges the project skills gap

How sound knowledge management can help bridge inevitable skills gaps in construction projects using social learning theory, by Neroshan Devakumaran.

Telling the story of the project

What is the role of narrative and storytelling in reflective practice? How can these skills and tools be used to improve knowledge management across projects? Michael Morrison’s paper discuss the art of storytelling, leadership and more.

Improve Performance Through Reflective Practice and Knowledge Sharing In Project Management—Shan He

Improve Performance Through Reflective Practice and Knowledge Sharing In Project Management
It becomes increasingly crucial for organisations to make improvement in such a competitive environment. Being adaptive to the changing market can be acquired through enhancing competence of organisation members and improving the collaboration of whole organisation. Therefore, reflective practice can be perceived as an efficient and simple approach for either organisation or individual to promote performance improvement and learning process while knowledge sharing can provide an easy access for members to exchange knowledge information and make improvement.

This paper will focus on how reflective practice and knowledge sharing enable organisation to improve performance and learning. Reflective practice can be applied through many tools and techniques, which need to be tailored within different organisational context. With respect to knowledge sharing, the most challenging aspect is the process of converting tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge, where can create a collaborative and dynamic environment for organisation to make improvement. There will be a project case that author involved with during working experience to illustrate how the project was managed using reflective practice tools while advantages, problems, lessons learnt are identified through the application of reflective journals. An improved outcome will
be demonstrated if the ‘Gibbs reflective cycle’ could have been applied into the project.

Through the reflection analysis of the project case, it is found that reflection becomes effective when applying theory into practice and knowledge sharing can bring an improved outcome. In organisation, learning to make improvement comes effectively from reflecting on experience.

Author: Shan He
Review status: Postgraduate assignment (University of Technology Sydney)

Communities of Practice—Chenxi Zhu

Communities of Practice
The aim of this essay is to describe how a community can approach a project goal and what project knowledge is shared in an architectural project. The knowledge exchange is a social process contingent on histories in project management. It indicates the tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge in the architectural area and also how these transfer and how to spread from the individual to team.

First section of this article is to introduce the background of the project. This architectural project is a serious and great Chinese government project. The requirement of this government project is to build a community building on a public site with a limited space areas of building. In this project, there are some issues to influence the project delay or out of control because of the situation of project. Some of these are related to the communication and some of these are related to the leadership.

The second part indicates some reflection of this project and how to solve some problems, and it also presents the how to make a combination of the different culture knowledge. I explain some previous factors that influence this project. Simultaneously, it presents the methodology of the knowledge transferring and sharing, because this project is transfer from another team in the architectural company. This section also shows the influence of leadership. A good leadership led the project success.

Overall, the main issues are included the leadership, communication and knowledge sharing. In the
conclusion, all issues belong to the whole community.

Author: Chenxi Zhu
Review status: Postgraduate assignment (University of Technology Sydney)

Application of KRAs Theory—Meng Jia

Application of KRAs Theory in Concept Design Phase of a Banknote Plate-making Workshop Construction Project in China
The uncertain nature of modern society results in a complex project management context, especially in the concept design phase. There is a critical demand to focus on key areas which can directly contribute to short-term objective and assist in long-term success of project.

This reflective paper analyzes key failing factors of a construction project which relates to the Banknote Plate-making workshop in China. Based on the actual condition, the technique of KRAs is applied to identify essential management areas and performance gaps between project team and benchmark. Some measures are recommended to fill the gaps and improve performance in the future projects.

Author: Meng Jia
Review status: Postgraduate assignment (University of Technology Sydney)