A Lessons-learned System for Construction Project Management: A Preliminary Application

Abstract

Construction companies are project-based organizations, since much of their knowledge is generated on site, from projects they carry out. In fact, projects are an important source of expert know-how and organizational knowledge, but lessons-learned from them are not systematically incorporated into subsequent projects, evidencing a lack of knowledge management and learning culture in local construction companies. This article describes a research effort that addressed this situation and developed a lessons-learned system to help construction companies to overcome these limitations. A multiple case-study methodology was applied to understand the knowledge and learning realities and needs of three Chilean construction companies. Based on these results, a mobile cloud-shared workspace to support knowledge management was developed. Results show that major concerns of users are associated with how the system acknowledges the particularities of construction projects and how it will be incorporated into daily activities. Main conclusions indicate that (1) companies acknowledge the need to develop a culture of innovation within the organization, (2) users consider the system as a tool that could really contribute to improve the construction project management process, and (3) the system needs improvements regarding database search and the Internet support before being fully implemented in the company as a project management tool.