DNV | KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Management and Facilitation of Project Networks
to share is to multiply
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do you share your experiences and lessons learned across projects?
Modern organisations deliver many of their products and services through projects and programmes, in which a multitude of stakeholders might be involved, both internal as well as external. A wealth of experiences and lessons learned are developed in these project environments every day. Reality however shows that ‘local’ knowledge developed in projects is heavily underused and remains untapped, especially in multi-national or multi-location contexts. As a 2
consequence, opportunities to reuse knowledge across the project landscape or in operations are missed. Capturing and sharing of experiences and lessons between projects should enable organisations to: ■ prevent unnecessary duplication of effort and thus reduce project costs; ■ learn from mistakes and avoid them in future or parallel initiatives;
COST OF IGNORANCE /// Costly mistakes are repeated, as earlier ones were not recorded or analysed
■ achieve their goals more effectively by reusing experiences of other projects; ■ adapt wider experiences to their local, sector or market conditions; ■ consider and fuel new areas for innovation; ■ respond more quickly to project needs and mobilise expertise to support project teams; ■ transfer new knowledge to accelerate ramp-up in operations.
Organisations are seeking to leverage the benefits of project-based work by harvesting and sharing newly gained project knowledge. Systematic learning from project activities contributes to acceleration of project delivery, increase of deliverable quality and reduction of project cost across the company.
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/// project networking
Project networking is about making connections between professionals in a project environment. It is about capturing and sharing the wealth of knowledge gained in projects and includes support of emerging communities of people with common interests, knowledge and practical experiences. Project networking is focused on three areas:
COST OF IGNORANCE /// 1 or 2 key employees hold crucial knowledge, putting continuity at risk
We believe that in a project environment, lessons learning and knowledge sharing should be integral to programme and project management discipline and not be left to coincidence. Since 1998, DNV has developed and deployed a suite of tools that support project networking. The examples provided on the following pages show a selection that illustrates the variety of methods and results that DNV can offer.
1 /// Learning in projects: the organisation of lessons learning at key milestones and critical points on the project timeline. 2 /// Learning between projects: the identification, capture and sharing of good practices, joint problem solving and exchange of lessons learned between concurrent projects. 3 /// Learning from projects: the capture, validation and dissemination of project knowledge to inform a wider community of practice and future projects.
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Knowledge Markets are informal but structured events that help a project community to efficiently match knowledge needs and knowledge offers. Participants can establish and explore common themes that deserve joint knowledge development and sharing. As a by-product, participants get to know each other better or deepen already existing relationships. At the end of the knowledge market, an analysis of key sharing themes is undertaken and knowledge sharing activities can be initiated.
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COST OF IGNORANCE /// Good ideas and best practices are not shared, raising costs and missing opportunities
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Debriefs follow a structured format and seek to capture reusable experiences and lessons learned in agreed areas. Outputs inform others in the project community to enhance their own project progress. Project debriefs seek to build reflective capacities in projects and instil lessons learned from others into the project’s next phase. Successful debriefs require an open and honest atmosphere and are best facilitated by experienced debrief facilitators.
Sharing Events are designed to help learn how others are tackling thematic issues that are common to the project community. Sharing events are participative, interactive and lead to concrete outcomes to be readily re-used. A sharing event enables participants to work with peers in their field, thus accelerating what they otherwise would be doing alone or in a smaller group. Well-timed events prevent the duplication of effort and the repetition of mistakes.
Peer Assists are sessions in which a problem holder is assisted by peers to resolve a project issue. Peer assists follow a structured, 10-step format that guides participants to formulate the root problem, identify underlying causes and offer a systematic way of proposing alternative problem resolutions.
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Lessons Learning tools include guidelines for undertaking systematic project learning and include tools such as the AAR (After Action Review), SMILE (Significant Milestone Review) and PPR (Post-Project Review). DNV lessons learned toolkits include templates for capturing and tagging the resulting lessons learned.
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COST OF IGNORANCE /// Employees use outdated and non-validated information in action
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Benchmarking through the capture of agreed project data against individual project plans. The data shared focusses on important criteria from an organisational perspective. Leaders in a project community can be identified and approached to share the underlying success factors. Equally, the wider project community can be linked to good practice, that when shared, further enhances overall programme delivery.
Webinars are short, online, facilitated sharing events that aim to quickly address a knowledge gap or to exchange ideas or information. Webinars provide an opportunity to draw on expertise from outside the community, without the burden of travel for both participants and presenters. As webinars can be recorded for future scrutiny, the content can be re-used.
The Project Learning Hub is a secure, information exchange website that enables users to connect with peers, retrieve key documentation and to collaborate on joint knowledge products. The HUB also promotes the aims and benefits of each project and helps to showcase its achievements and expertise.
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/// Undertake planned sharing activities
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DNV’s project networking services are underpinned by DNV’s model for learning in projects that combines individual project learning with collective learning. Key to our model is a continuous cycle of asking, learning, sharing and structuring. Within each of these activities a series of tasks is executed, of which examples are provided this figure:
WE SHARE 1 ■ Arrange project close-out and lessons hand-over to the organisation or programme management office; 2 ■ Process, annotate and submit key activity documentation. Address issues relating to IP and confidentiality; 3 ■ Post project close out report to intranet and promote new knowledge assets to stakeholders; 4 ■ If activity is selected for a broader dissemination, nominate speaker(s) for training courses or sharing days.
E LE A R N
/// Safeguard new knowledge for wider use
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WE ASK 1 ■ Check: standard procedures and guidelines; 2 ■ Identify knowledge gaps, training needs, coaching and mentoring needs and implement; 3 ■ Identify colleagues with knowledge and experience who can offer peer assistance and ensure you have a budget to engage them; 4 ■ Review lessons of previous, similar activities.
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/// Lessons learning in the Project learning cycle
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WE STRUCTURE 1 ■ Validate project knowledge assets e.g. CVs, project references, etc.; 2 ■ Tag assets for easier access and re-use; 3 ■ Identify any needs to amend corporate procedures, systems, training etc; 4 ■ Liaise with owners of the Corporate Learning Cycle.
/// Adopt existing knowledge and adapt project plan accordingly
WE LEARN 1 ■ Create a learning plan: what do you expect to learn, when are you capturing the lessons, with whom and how? 2 ■ Execute the learning plan, through use of project learning tools e.g. After Action Reviews / Critical Incident Analysis, etc.; 3 ■ Review lessons with peers identified earlier; 4 ■ Update improved project plan drawing on lessons to date.
/// Capture new knowledge
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W DISSEMINATE KNOWLEDGE TO WIDER (ORGANISATIONAL) COMMUNITY
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COMMUNITY WEBSITE
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When combining these project learning activities in a project networking programme, the collective experience of a community of projects is leveraged to mutually accelerate and enhance the entire portfolio of project activity, see figure 2.
/// Project-to-project learning cycle
PROJECT NETWORKING
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/// project networking
DNV has developed significant international experience across a variety of industries in designing, coordinating and facilitating project networking for joint industry projects, research and development portfolios, technology demonstration programmes and project networks. Clients who benefit from project networking and learning are those responsible for: ■ New onshore or offshore installations; ■ Large decommissioning programmes and projects; ■ R&D programmes; ■ Joint Industry Projects; ■ Sharing best practice across organisational and geographic boundaries.
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COST OF IGNORANCE /// Loss of critical knowledge due to retirement and mobility of workforce
DNV provides the following services that cover all aspects of effective project networking programmes: ■ Design and facilitation of knowledge sharing activities for individual projects; ■ Organisation and facilitation of (large-scale) knowledge markets, sharing events and peer assists; ■ Supporting programme management offices with benchmarking for learning; ■ Design and implementation of effective joint industry projects and project networks; ■ Recommending and managing IT environments that support project networking and knowledge dissemination. Our delivery modes are consultancy, programme management, coaching and (in house) training.
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WHAT ARE YOUR COSTS OF IGNORANCE? For more information please contact Rob van der Spek, Director of Knowledge Management Advisory Services /// t +31 (0)6 54781900 /// e rob.van.der.spek@dnv.com, kmservices@dnv.com /// w www.dnv.com/knowledgemanagement