Is project management a knowledge management activity? To answer this question we must first define “project” and “project management”, and then see how it relates to knowledge management (I’ll use the definition of knowledge management that I posted yesterday ).

Projects are different from business as usual, or operational activities, in that they are unique undertakings, are non-repetitive, and often deliver revolutionary change rather than evolutionary change. The Project Management Institute, which is widely recognised as the world peak body for project management, picks up on the uniqueness and temporal ideas by defining a project as ‘… a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique produce, service or result’ (PMI 2004, p. 368). Similarly, the United Kingdom Office of Government Commence, which is also a world peak body for project management, defines a project as being ‘… a temporary organisation that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified business case' (Office of Government Commerce 2005, p. 6).

The key is that projects are finite and have defined timelines; this allows them to be staged. They always consume additional human and other resources, and they involve an element of organisational risk, which often creates conflict and increases complexity. Project management might be defined as:

‘… the application of specific knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to realise business value through the delivery of a set of tasks, usually in a constrained time frame and an environment of uncertainty and risk’.

Project management is therefore at least a change management and cannot exist without a business context. It is undertaken for a reason, which is usually to gain something for a business entity, be it is a government department, a commercial company, or a non-profit organisation. However, is project management a knowledge management activity?

Well is seems to me that project management is a problem-driven discipline, requiring the application or discovery of discrete knowledge, and I guess this knowledge should be “managed”. My problem is the temporal dimension of a project seems to be at odds with the implicit assumption of knowledge management, which is to preserve or make available knowledge in the medium to long term (otherwise why do it?). On the other hand Reich (2007, p 8) says:

‘Knowledge management in the context of a project is the application of principles and processes designed to make relevant knowledge available to the project team. Effective knowledge management facilitates the creation and integration of knowledge, minimizes knowledge losses, and fills knowledge gaps throughout the duration of the project’.

This makes knowledge management subservient to project management, but I would submit project management as temporary activity is subservient to knowledge management, which is or should be an organisation-wide activity. I’d be interested in your thoughts.

Regards Graham

Reich, B 2007, 'Managing knowledge and learning in IT projects: A conceptual framework and guidelines for practice', Project Management Journal, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 5-17.