Usage of Knowledge Management Techniques in IT Based Company in Sri Lanka: A Case Study
Abstract
Abstract
Knowledge Management (KM) and Project Management (PM) are very substantial techniques to gain the competitive advantage within the Information Technology (IT) industry. In IT projects, it is essential to get the right knowledge to the right people at the right time. KM techniques are used to fulfill the above knowledge gaps. The main objective of this study is to determine the usage of KM techniques in an IT company in Sri Lanka. Simple random sample of size 108 is selected from the target population of all 150 project team members in the selected company. Since, the hypotheses were tested using statistical methods the positivism philosophy was used in this study. A deductive approach is used in cross-sectional time horizon and mixed approach is used to gather data. Collected data were analyzed to identify the usage of KM techniques in successful and failure projects. KM techniques were compared with respect to the status of the project (Success/Failure) and the category of the project (Government/Privet/Banking/Insurance/other). Male representation is higher than the female representation in the company. Majority of respondents belongs to the age group 26-30 and bachelor’s degree holders. More than half of the respondents do not have any KM qualification. Among the projects undertaken by the company 30% projects are related to insurance industry while government, banking, and private company with 20% each. The rest of the projects come under other category. Usages of the different type of KM techniques were examined. The successful projects mainly used after action review, brainstorming, collaborative virtual workshop, communication of practice, peer assist, learning review as important techniques while failure projects do not. In the successful projects knowledge banks is not considered as an important technique while in the failure projects does. The analyzed results stated that after action review, gone well note, learning review have significantly effect on all project categories. Moreover, blog, knowledge bases, storytelling and social networks are found to be effectiveness on successfulness of government and private projects.
Keywords: Knowledge management, Project Management, Knowledge management techniques
