ANALYSIS OF THE KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM FOR ACBP’S PROJECTS
Introduction
This case study seeks to understand the difficulties of Australian Customs and Border Protection (ACBP) in their IT projects by analyzing how knowledge is being created and managed in its IT projects. It is using a project management (PM) methodology called Prince2 and it is strongly suspecting that it is part of the problem. It is possible that there can also be other factors aside from the use of Prince2 and it is the aim of this study to uncover them.
There are several knowledge management (KM) methods that can be used but only one will be chosen to shed light on ACBP’s situation. This method will show the sources of knowledge, how knowledge is being processed and where this knowledge are being transferred. It is the aim of this study to present a deeper understanding of the IT PM challenges in the light of knowledge management.
Situation on IT Project Governance
The ACBP is not satisfied in their usage of their project management methodology Prince2. It feels that it is too complex for their needs and faithfully following its processes is hindering their projects’ progress instead of facilitating them. Senior managers find them too time consuming with not enough guidance to break-down complex issues for better understandability. As a result, 70% of the projects had overruns in terms of time or money.
The human capital on PM is unsatisfactory with the uneven distribution of PM skills among IT staff. It has not grown because of the over dependence on outsourcing which did not include a mechanism for knowledge transfer. Moreover, new staffs aren’t introduced to the PM methodology early enough got them to be effective when assigned to projects. Tight funding had also limited the hiring of permanent IT staff which results in poor retention of valuable knowledge and experience on PM. There had been no formal facility to retain knowledge of exiting employees.
Establishing priorities for the IT projects had been a major strategic concern and one reason is the lack of a well-defined business enterprise architecture that is owned and managed by top management. In the model of Microsoft’s Michael Platt, this business perspective will steer the other perspectives for the application, information and technology (Rouse 2010). Business-driven decision can guide PM in making its own decisions for the other three perspectives. Current governance structures are not suitable for effective decision-making and must be reformed. ACBP’s business delivery model doesn’t have a balance between functional and geographic views.
There is also a feeling that there are too many committees in Prince2 where it forces the same membership with leadership roles distributed among members. The familiarity often results in confused roles which ends-up in information sharing forums with little drive towards decisions.
Methodology
For consistency and clarity, only one KM method will used; chosen among three which are the knowledge wheel, SECI model and the ASHEN model.
Knowledge Wheel
The knowledge wheel splits knowledge into explicit and tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge is further divided into processes, data, information and skills which are all in the form of documents and audio-video recordings. Tacit knowledge is divided into relationships, natural talents and experience. (Lambe)
In an ACBP project, explicit knowledge resides in the documents containing the policies, processes, procedures, standards and reports that the organization refers to in its operations. Based on its objectives, project management draws on this body of knowledge as input to its own processes that will create deliverables which contain both knowledge products as well as material products.
Tacit knowledge in the project would refer to who are the people with relationships and the strength of the relationship that can facilitate or hinder the efforts towards results. Natural talents would refer to the level of expertise that people have attained that to pertinent of the project. An important distinction must be made between what is on paper and the reputation that other people vouch for. This also applies to the quality and relevance of experiences for the project.
SECI Model
The Socialization-Externalization-Combination-Internalization (SECI) model describes a cycle of knowledge creation which produces tacit knowledge which can be productively applied to the real world. In the early stages of PM, both explicit and tacit knowledge are gathered, selected and interpreted for their value to the project. These are then processed by PM methods to convert tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in the form of documents and products through externalization. Explicit knowledge can also be used to create more of the same by combination. Finally, project management products and lessons become more tacit knowledge using internalization. (Frost, 2012)
ASHEN Model
The model use five perspectives to examine the state of knowledge in a situation: artifacts, skills, heuristics, experience and natural talent. For each of these aspects, a question can be posed in a project management context:
What artifacts were used in establishing the baseline? What artifacts (deliverables) are expected at the end of stages?
What skills are needed for the project roles? What technical skills are needed to create the technical products?
What heuristics are being used in the various areas of operations and in the company’s PM practice?
What were experiences that yielded PM lessons?
What natural talents are necessary to expedite the project? How do we identify who has them?
(Ashen)
Selected Model
The knowledge wheel would be the best choice among three as it includes a distinction between explicit and tacit knowledge aside from the aspects that were stated in the ASHEN model. The knowledge wheel also incorporates all the aspects of the ASHEN model. For application to this case, the knowledge wheel can be modified with ASHEN features and imputed with IT PM concerns:
In the same manner, the related questions for ASHEN can be used for analysis.
Analysis
Knowledge Sources
The adopted PM methodology is PRINCE2 (Bonnie 2014) which comprises the bulk of the Method aspect of knowledge. It is the de facto standard of the UK since 1996. It is an explicit knowledge product by itself in the form of manuals and audio-video media, etc. PRINCE2 is known to be extensive in documentation which is both its advantage and disadvantage. An abbreviated version would fare better for shorter, time-constrained projects like those of ACBP. The complaints of complexity are a symptom that the level of rigor in the usage of PRINCE2 far exceeds the requirements of the projects. How time consuming it is for senior managers can be gleaned from the meeting minutes and deliverables required from them. (Bonnie 2014)
There is also the observation of a wide disparity of PM skills among members. Explicit skills would be the official training certifications and experiences on record. Tacit skills in the form of natural talent would be demonstrated competence shown by members.
There is also inefficiency in skill retention because of too many temporary staff which is caused by tight project funding. How many man-hours of training have been spent and written-off because of staff turnover would be the relevant data. There are also new staff who are not even aware of PRINCE2. A current count of these uninitiated staff would be revealing data.
Past Projects Records
Past project performance had been dismal at 70% having cost or time overruns. There must a wealth of lessons that can be gained from reviewing the documentation, especially from the ICS and COMPASS projects
Enterprise Architecture
The perceived inability to set business priorities for the projects is seen as proof of weak links between business and project objectives. Priority will dictate how much resources a project will receive. Misalignment will cause these cost and time overruns. Top management can provide the business objectives and their priorities.
Governance frameworks and structures can also be reviewed on how effectively make decisions for projects guidance.
Relationships
It had been observed how unproductive committee meetings are and this is attributed to the similar memberships. The meetings often degrade into information-sharing rather than decision-making. Conclusions and action plans can be reviewed in meeting minutes to confirm this. The minutes will also show the topics and the proportion of time spent on them. Why the they behave that way is tacit information which can come from personal interviews.
Project management should also have a feel on what existing inter-personal and inter-group relationships exist, be they positive and negative. Natural professional rivalries between groups and individuals should also be identified. Long-serving employees are the best sources of information. These can be the basis in the formation of groups and communication channels.
Business Delivery Model
This new model has caused bad effects on planning and operations. One important information is how this model has affected the initiation, prioritization and implementation of IT projects. Past project issues can be identified whose causes can be traced to the implementation and movements in the business delivery model.
Users of Knowledge
First and foremost, it will be the project managers who will benefit from an audit and inventory of all the knowledge assets that are pertinent to projects as they are mapped out in the knowledge wheel. They can better understand the business and project management culture and practices of ACSB and how it can blend with or transition to PRINCE2. They can use the information on business priorities to negotiate constraints and resources with the project owners. With information on skills, experiences, talents and relationships, they can make decisions on role assignments and people issues.
Project members can use the deeper knowledge of PRINCE2 and be able to execute correctly the project manager’s directions. . With information on skills, experiences, talents and relationships, they can know who are the knowledge sources within the team who they can go to if necessary. Being aware of the impacts to the business, they can have better motivation on their works.
The business managers who are the project owners can learn more of PRINCE2 and with the project managers, be able to customize its usage to the scales of the projects. They can have an idea of the capability gaps of staff regarding project management and escalate this issue with top management. They can understand the weaknesses of the business delivery model and plan workarounds to negate the bad effects.
Finally, the top management can learn about the projects performances and the difficulties that were due to resource allocations, inadequate polices (eg. HR training) and the implementation of the new business delivery model. The information will enable them to make corrective actions.
Flow of Knowledge
Knowledge Management and Targets
Knowledge can be considered as capital where time and resources are invested to acquire it and for it to be utilized later on to create more value for the company. (Strassmann 1998)
There must be designated PRINCE2 expert who can customize PRINCE2 depending on the project size. The basics of PRINCE2 should be incorporated in the new hires training program that will make them already functional for project assignments. There should also be PRINCE2 training for those groomed to be future project managers. Business managers should have a basic orientation of PRINCE2 so they can interact effectively with project managers.
Project managers should also be oriented on the business delivery methods of the ACBP. Project knowledge bases should be created to store PM knowledge in terms of cases, solutions and lessons. HR should include experiences and natural talent in their human capital inventories.
Conclusion
There are knowledge assets in ACBP that can be classified using the knowledge wheel for both business and project management. Gaps in knowledge and who should have them have identified the causes of the poor performance of ACBP’s projects. Knowledge management has identified the tasks that will create new knowledge targets that can empower ACBP’s project management environment with new explicit and tacit knowledge for both project and business workers.
References
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