Title: Knowledge and experience sharing in projects-based building maintenance community of practice

Authors: Patrick S.W. Fong, Ka-Chi Wong

Addresses: Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. ' Building Management Department, The English Schools Foundation, 43B Stubbs Road, Hong Kong

Abstract: Owing to the unique nature of building maintenance projects, building professionals need sufficient technical, product and project-organising knowledge and experience to facilitate their decision-making. Apart from gaining this knowledge and experience by learning on the job, learning from others is an important alternative. However, insufficiencies have been found in the current practice on this aspect, thus, the aim of this study is to examine whether knowledge and experience in building maintenance projects could be reused in a more effective and efficient way by forming a community of practice across organisations and whether a proposed web-based experience management system would be a feasible solution in the sharing, capture, and reuse of knowledge and experience in building maintenance. A questionnaire survey and interviews were conducted to study the opinions of building professionals on various issues related to the sharing, capture, and reuse of knowledge and experience in building maintenance projects, as well as the requirements of a proposed web-based system.

Keywords: communities of practice; CoP; residential buildings; high-rise buildings; building maintenance; knowledge management; projects; experience management; building surveyors; facilities managers; web-based systems; knowledge sharing; project management; knowledge capture; knowledge reuse; web based communities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJKMS.2009.028841

International Journal of Knowledge Management Studies, 2009 Vol.3 No.3/4, pp.275 - 294

Published online: 06 Oct 2009 *

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