Title: Embracing real outcomes to future projects: a knowledge management method for schedule development

Authors: Elena Rokou; Konstantinos Kirytopoulos; Vassilis Stavrou

Addresses: National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Politechniou 9, 15780 Athens, Greece. ' National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Politechniou 9, 15780 Athens, Greece. ' National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Politechniou 9, 15780 Athens, Greece

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide an effective method for schedule reengineering and optimisation through knowledge acquisition and corporate memory creation. The core problem of schedule development is about defining the right activities for inclusion in the schedule, their duration and the right dependencies among project activities. It is shown here that project-oriented organisations specialised in certain domains can have highly accurate project schedules and thus improved efficiency by exploiting past experience. The first part of the proposed method consists of monitoring all the existing processes related to the projects execution and the corresponding knowledge acquisition through monitoring project results. The second part handles the creation of a corporate memory in the form of a set of schedule prototypes, along with all the needed processes for future projects execution. The paper is illustrated with a case study concerning the implementation of the method on the construction sector.

Keywords: project management; project scheduling; knowledge management; schedule development; schedule reengineering; schedule optimisation; knowledge acquisition; corporate memory creation; process monitoring; construction industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPOM.2012.050327

International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 2012 Vol.4 No.4, pp.306 - 321

Published online: 16 Aug 2014 *

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