Naomi J. Brookes

Knowledge management benchmarks for project management

The results of a research project dealing with knowledge management in project environments and the capability to transfer knowledge across projects teams are presented. A key distinction is made between generic project knowledge (kernel knowledge) and specific project knowledge (ephemeral knowledge). For each type of knowledge, knowledge management benchmarks are described and discussed. The empirical data used in this paper was collected from companies of various sizes operating in the manufacturing, construction and service sectors.

Managing Relationships to Improve Performance: A case study in the global aerospace industry

Organizations wishing to succeed in the competitive climate of the contemporary marketplace will need to differentiate themselves from competitors. World-class product development is considered the key to competitive advantage and, to compete effectively in global markets, organizations need to be proficient at this core activity. The knowledge-intensive process of product development will benefit from strategic alliances with customers based on trust and mutual benefit. This paper reports on research which developed a managerial tool that allows manufacturing organizations to understand the impacts of relationships at the boundaries of their internal and external activities. It focuses upon the importance of collaboration to forming and maintaining productive relationships within and between organizations. Such an approach will help organizations, and the individuals within them, to identify appropriate internal and inter-organizational network development strategies. An important assumption that underlies its development is that the model will improve project and product development performance by improving communication flows through enhanced networked relationships between team members, and hence improve the overall performance of the organization. This paper sets the research context and presents results of action research with a team of engineers from a large organization in the aerospace industry. It reveals the crucial importance of trust in underpinning successful internal and inter-organizational relationships. It is suggested that the tool provides a convenient methodology for measuring and benchmarking relational network performance.

Understanding concurrent engineering implementation: A case-study approach

Concurrent engineering is a widely recognized approach to improving product introduction and it is therefore key that its implementation is understood. This paper augments the existing understanding of concurrent engineering implementations by using a case-study approach. The benefits of this are reviewed and the results of nine industrial case-studies are presented. An amalgamated picture of the results of both research approaches is used to highlight how concurrent engineering may be more widely implemented. In the course of the examination, a vocabulary to enable a common understanding of concurrent engineering was developed and this is also presented in this paper.

Concurrent engineering: What's working where

Concurrent Engineering aims to maximize profitability through the shortening of new product introduction time. But, whilst the overall philosophy may be clear, the precise details of what form of Concurrent Engineering is most appropriate for any given set of circumstances is not so well defined. Specific cases of successful implementation need to be understood within their context to ensure success if repeated elsewhere. This work addresses this issue by developing a framework within which all the influencing pressures acting on a company can be considered. The framework shows how these pressures can be categorized and then related to the elements which come together to form the Concurrent Engineering solution. The core of the text is a series of case studies written by industrialists. In each chapter companies which have employed similar approaches to Concurrent Engineering are compared. The case studies range from multinationals, such as Rolls-Royce, IBM and Marconi, through to smaller enterprises. By reference to these real examples, executives concerned with evaluating or implementing Concurrent Engineering can see how the most appropriate techniques can be selected and introduced into their own compnay.

Who reads the project file? Exploring the power effects of knowledge tools in construction project management

Various critical authors have questioned the salience, efficacy and power effects of formal project management bodies of knowledge (PMBoKs). As a result project management knowledge tools are increasingly being conceptualized along more flexible, adaptable, reflexive, democratic and informal terms. A central driver for this shift is that PM knowledge will be more relevant and useful for practitioners if it can be reflexively tailored to fit local project scenarios, emergent problems and different communities of practice, rather than projects being structured to fit generic ‘best practice’ ideals. Hence new knowledge tools increasingly would appear critical to alleviate various detrimental power effects associated with bureaucratic knowledge practices within project‐based industries, not least construction. This assumption is examined through a study of a formal and codified project management knowledge tool—a project file—within a small team of project practitioners in a large civil engineering consultancy. Various concepts of power related to actor‐network theory (ANT) are mobilized to understand how non‐human artefacts can enact power and knowledge in nuanced ways within organizations. This theoretically informed study will aid both researchers and practitioners interested in the consequences of developing prescriptive or reflexive project management knowledge within construction contexts and beyond.

How actor‐network theories can help in understanding project complexities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to question why current thinking towards project complexity ignores the role of objects in achieving social order and transformation. An alternative, but complementary, approach to address project complexities, drawing upon actor‐network theory (ANT), is offered to redress this concern.Design/methodology/approach – Current thinking towards project complexity is briefly reviewed in the first section to illustrate the reasons why nonhumans are downplayed. An historical case study, the Skye road bridge project, is mobilized to explain, and develop, an ANT perspective on project complexities, and responses to such complexities.Findings – ANT develops accounts of project complexity by highlighting the role of nonhumans in influencing how practitioners register, respond and stabilize project complexities. Front‐end planning and stakeholder analysis is shown to be only one narrow element of four moments through which actors apprehend and stabilize project complexities.Resea...

Managing the informal organisation: conceptual model

Management thinking has seen organisations group product development activities in a number of ways in the quest to improve performance. The implementation of multi‐disciplinary teams has been recognised as a means of rapidly improving the way product development activities are managed. However, such an approach is not without its ills. Moreover, Hendersons research (Henderson, R., “Managing innovation in the information age”, Harvard Business Review, January, 1994, Reprint no. 94105) indicates that what governs product development success is the ability of the company to overcome the boundaries of any organisational grouping, rather than the type of organisation structure adopted. This research seeks to corroborate Hendersons propositions in a number of different industrial settings. Social network analysis helped embody the theory into a specification for a model to visualise and manipulate the informal organisation and the on‐going research activities further developed the specification into a working model that has been trialed in a number of different industrial settings. This paper sets the research context and presents the results thus far, both in the context of knowledge from academic research and practical application of the model. The working model has been able to manipulate the informal organisation by enabling visualisation of “core knowledge communities”, generating discussion, and supplying focus for individuals and teams to manage relationships more effectively and hence improve product development performance. Implications for further use of the model are reported, together with its potential for improving performance in organisational areas external to product development.

A ‘Strategy-as-Practice’ exploration of lean construction strategizing

A growing body of work emerging from the management and organizational studies literature is the ‘Strategy-as-Practice’ (SaP) perspective, which focuses on the ways in which strategy is actually enacted within organizational settings. This perspective is used to examine the diffusion of lean construction. In recent years lean construction has grown in prominence to become one of the primary performative improvement recipes for the construction sector. However, rather than providing a stable strategy around which more collaborative, intelligent and efficient project-based organizations develop, this research reveals how the lean concept transforms during its journey with unintended organizational consequences. An ethnographic case study, informed by SaP, demonstrates how a lean strategy and its effects on organizational practice and culture cannot be understood separately from material and embodied practices and power effects. As well as contributing to the examination of lean construction practice, the findings show how strategy is enacted within construction organizations and the ensuing effects of social power. A new trajectory is opened for research into strategizing within construction organizations, which provides ways to explore actual practices and spaces where strategizing occurs.

Measuring the performance of product introduction

Abstract This paper begins with a discussion of the importance of the effective performance measurement of product introduction and the difficulties inherent within that task. Criteria are then established for effective product introduction performance measures which are used to identify the most appropriate of existing performance measurement mechanisms. A case study approach of industrial organizations is used to examine whether this mechanism is employed in practice, and wider conclusions are drawn on the formation of effective measures of performance for product introduction.

The use of maturity models in improving project management performance:an empirical investigation

Purpose – The purpose of the paper was to conduct an empirical investigation to explore the impact of project management maturity models (PMMMs) on improving project performance. Design/methodology/approach – The investigation used a cross-case analysis involving over 90 individuals in seven organisations. Findings – The findings of the empirical investigation indicate that PMMMs demonstrate very high levels of variability in individuals assessment of project management maturity. Furthermore, at higher levels of maturity, the type of performance improvement adopted following their application is related to the type of PMMM used in the assessment. The paradox of the unreliability of PMMMs and their widespread acceptance is resolved by calling upon the “wisdom of crowds” phenomenon which has implications for the use of maturity model assessments in other arena. Research limitations/implications – The investigation does have the usual issues associated with case research, but the steps that have been taken in the cross-case construction and analysis have improved the overall robustness and extendibility of the findings. Practical implications – The tendency for PMMMs to shape improvements based on their own inherent structure needs further understanding. Originality/value – The use of empirical methods to investigate the link between project maturity models and extant changes in project management performance is highly novel and the findings that result from this have added resonance.