Conceptualizing the Lessons Learned Process in Delivery Projects: Detecting Knowledge Flow Barriers

Abstract

AbstractKnowledge is vital intellectual property and is one of the most significant assets of an organization. Notably, it needs to be highly prioritized and managed strategically to enhance continuous improvement by capturing and reusing knowledge. Technology enterprises are associated with innovation, productivity, a collaboration of multidisciplinary professionals, tight budgets, and challenging time‐schedules. These factors combined are often what leads to challenges with knowledge management. Frequent disappointments with past knowledge management initiatives have motivated organizations to gain a new understanding of the complex mechanism of knowledge, which governs the effectiveness of an enterprise. This study elaborated on identifying knowledge flow barriers and handling knowledge by lessons learned (LL) practice in a case company and identify changes to ameliorate the flow. Albeit, the observations revealed that the difficulties related to finding LL documents were not the main issue, it was the contribution of the leaders. The case company demonstrated a discrepancy between what they said they do, and what they actually do. Besides these barriers, the research also detected divergence in the fundamental understanding of the theoretical aspects within knowledge management and LL, which indicates confusion and absence of awareness for the project managers and the leaders. Implementation of Systems Engineering (SE) methods, such as Communities of Practice (CoP) or triple loop lessons learned may fill both the gaps in the company but also in the literature when it comes to improving knowledge flow in large‐sized delivery projects.