Notes for Reich, Gemina, and Sauer “Modeling the Knowledge Perspective of IT Projects”


INTRODUCTION
(4) IT projects are usually delivered over budget and past deadline. More troubling though is the perception that IT-enabled change does not generate the organizational value that is anticipated.
(4) This research perspective considers an IT project as an arena in which action is paramount and in which tasks, budgets, people, and schedules must be managed and controlled to achieve expected results.
(4) Another perspective that is gaining momentum views a project as a place in which learning and knowledge is paramount.

Project based organization supplanted by solutions.

(4) Furthermore, today's IT projects are often more about the integration of systems than the construction of software. In this environment, the project manager's primary task is to combine multiple sources of knowledge about technologies and business processes to create organizational value.

A Knowledge-Based View of IT Projects

Model of knowledge-based risks in IT projects.

(5) This model of knowledge-based risks in IT projects suggests that there are 10 areas of risk occurring within an IT project's four parts: inputs, processes, outputs, and governance structure.
(5) The conceptual framework for the knowledge and learning perspective within IT projects contains three parts: a. a typology of knowledge that is critical to IT project success; b. a definition of knowledge management in the context of IT projects; and c. a model that identifies the knowledge-based risks in an IT project.

What Kinds of Knowledge Need to Be Managed?

Need to manage process, domain, institutional and cultural knowledge.

(5) The first type of knowledge - process knowledge - is the knowledge that team members and sponsors have about the project structure, methodology, tasks, and time frames.
(5) The second type of knowledge is
domain knowledge, the knowledge of the industry, firm, current situation, problem/opportunity, and potential solutions (including technology and business process).
(5) The third is
institutional knowledge. This knowledge is a mix of an organization's history, power structure, and values . . . the fourth kind of knowledge necessary in an IT project is cultural knowledge.

What Is Knowledge Management in IT Projects?

What Knowledge-Based Risks Exist in IT Projects?

(6) The 10 knowledge-based risks in IT projects have been organized into a four-component model composed of knowledge inputs, project governance, project operational phases, and project outputs. [expand on these]
(7) The more difficult the domain problems are, the more important it is that team members possess a knowledge map - showing the knowledge within the team and the knowledge available to the team.

Empirical Support for Knowledge-Based Risks in IT Projects

Summary of the Empirical Evidence to Date [expand on these]

(7) the practices for gathering and disseminating lessons learned are immature.
(9) Several studies have shown that the knowledge possessed by team members impacts team performance.

Can We Model Project Performance Using a Knowledge Lens?
(9) In the Temporal Model of IT Project Performance, the risks and resources in a project are modeled over time.
(9) at T-1, the model separates out knowledge resources from other risks.
(9) There are no knowledge outputs explicitly contained in this model.
(9) This model was tested via a survey of 194 projects from 194 different project managers. . . . To analyze this data, we then used a partial least squares (PLS) approach.
(9) The findings show partial support for the knowledge perspective of IT projects.

Influence at the Construct Level: Knowledge Resources
(9) From this perspective, knowledge resources help the project manager take the necessary actions that will help the team achieve the project's goals.

Influence at the Subconstruct Level: Expertise Coordination and Knowledge Loss
(10) When we looked inside the components of project management practices, we saw that expertise coordination, the knowledge component, has more influence than both administrative coordination (i.e., task and time monitoring) and process integration.

A Preliminary Model of the Knowledge Perspective of IT Projects
(10) At present, we have only a very simplistic understanding of the impact of time within a project on knowledge and risk.
(11) This model admittedly does not consider the impact of cultural and institutional knowledge on project success and also may fail to capture the client's knowledge needs and contributions.
(11) [five constructs]: the initial level of knowledge resources available to the project; . . . knowledge lost during T-2; . . . efforts taken by the project manager to create new knowledge; . . . traditional measures of project success; . . . knowledge outputs of the project.



Reich, Blaize H., Andrew Gemina, and Chris Sauer. “Modeling the Knowledge Perspective of IT Projects.” Project Management Journal 39.Supplement (2008): 4-14. Print.