2.2. Studies of KM processes
The KM practices in 15 firms in the construction and
manufacturing industries were studied. The studies were
based on semi-structured interviews, which lasted for
about 2 h, with individuals (between 1 and 7) in each
firm. Questions asked revolved around the following
themes: (1) the organisational context for the management
of project knowledge; (2) the transfer of knowledge
between project (type of knowledge and current
processes); (3) the challenges and opportunities for
cross-project knowledge management.
The studies on current KM practice revealed that in
both the manufacturing and construction sectors, the
management of knowledge was characterised by the
absence of formal, proactive KM processes. However,
there are some examples of good practice in the activities
that contributed to the management of project
knowledge, for example, in the effective use of project
management tools, documentation systems and regular
revisions of project plans to take into consideration any
lessons learnt from past activities. The use of certain
procurement options in construction firms, also provide
an appropriate organisational framework through
which people can reuse their tacit learning on subsequent
projects. There are also examples of good practice
in integrating IT systems and processes to ensure
that there is consistency in KM related activities across
an organisation. But the absence of dedicated KM
strategies means that organisations do not derive as
much benefit from KM as they should. The results
therefore suggest that companies might need assistance
in the following areas: (1) identifying their high-grade
knowledge; (2) assistance in making high-grade knowledge
explicit and highly controlled; and (3) assistance in
selecting appropriate strategies for KM that reflect the
unique features of their organisations. These findings
were taken into consideration in the development of the
CLEVER framework.
3. The CLEVER framework
The aim of the framework is to clarify a ‘vague’
knowledge management problem(s) into a set of specific
knowledge management issues, set within a business
context. There are four stages in the framework (Fig. 2):
define the problem, create overview of ‘to-be’ solution,
identify critical migration paths, and select appropriate
KM process(es).
3.1. Define KM problem
The aim of this stage is to define the overall KM
problem within a business context and it involves a
description of the perceived problem and identifying the