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Due to its high-risk nature, international construction projects are more vulnerable to adverse changes in project environment and company objectives. To achieve successful project outcomes, early provision of risks has a vital place in managing construction projects. Within the literature, several risk assessment methodologies have been offered to simulate probable consequences of risks. The majority of the proposed methodologies are limited in reflection of real project conditions as they require probabilistic measures or rely on solely intuition and experience of decision makers. In this study, it is argued that an additional assistance is needed for decision-makers when they are assessing magnitudes of risks under different project and country conditions. The purpose of this study is to develop a knowledge-based risk mapping tool for international construction projects using an ontology that relates risk and vulnerability to cost overrun and a novel risk-vulnerability assessment methodology. The tool incorporates a &lsquo / lessons learned database&rsquo / that utilizes learning from previous projects in order to assist decision-makers when quantifying the risk-related variables. The database is expected to aid decision-makers by retrieving and making use of the knowledge of previous projects that have been captured, codified, and stored within the database previously. In addition, to guide decision-makers by giving better understanding of the risk variables, attributes of the risk-related variables are identified that lists probable triggering events for the occurrence of the relevant variables. The tool has also been tested on a real construction project as well as its usability has been ensured by conducting some usability tests.

The purpose of thesis was to investigate and compare how two companies within pharmaceutical industry and nuclear power industry are currently working with quality development regarding continuous improvement and Lessons Learned in business processes. In addition, a simple comparison was made with the automotiveindustry. McNeil AB are improving their processes continuously and are according to the findings of this report performing well in their pursuit of world-class pharmaceutical production. They have a well functioning process regarding improvements proposed in weekly improvement meetings engaging all employees. However, during interviews it was made clear that the functionality of the process which administer improvement proposals generated in addition to, or beside the weekly improvement meetings, were inadequate. McNeil AB is proposed to administer this through an IT solution instead of by paper and e-mail, that simplifies the process of adding, implementing and follow up an improvement proposal. The nuclear power plant Ringhals AB recently made major improvements in their business processes as well as the plant itself. In a short period of time, several major modernization projects have been carried out and the project department have been put to the test. In order to drive changes in the plant, a plant modification process is used which is highly appreciated by the employees. However, when compared to McNeil AB and the automotive industry’s processes the plant modification process was found to lack in Lessons Learned. Ringhals AB is therefore proposed to implement Lessons Learned methodologies in check points throughout the projects lifecycle.

The capability to know what knowledge there is and where it resides within an organization is becoming increasingly important in the new knowledge-based economy. This paper takes on a practise-based view of knowledge in order to decide on a course of action for how to successfully implement knowledge management within a knowledge-based company. By considering all knowledge as more or less contextual and socially constructed, knowledge is divided into three dimensions depending on the degree to which it is tacit, namely: information, knowledge and skills. The paper then discusses inhibitors and enablers for transferring knowledge via these three dimensions respectively.  The empirical findings are based upon a case study of Faveo. It is shown that Faveo, like most organizations, has til now focused on the collection of codified knowledge, i.e. documentation of information. Faveo has the technology established to potentiallymanage information transfer to an adequate degree. Still, the company fails to do so due to its incapability to enable use of its groupware. To surmount this problem, Faveo needs to address the attitudes of its employees towards its groupware and train them in how to use it. To improve Faveo’s knowledge management and thus pursue world class project management, the company also needs to step up its game within the two areas of knowledge and skills transfer. There are some but not sufficient plans for handling knowledge transfer at Faveo and, again, Faveo fails to enable these processes to turn from plans into action. There is an overall need for more formal as well as informal interaction between individual and groups of employees at Faveo. In addition, Faveo needs to acknowledge skills transfer as a vital part of knowledge management. This report finally suggests that Faveo needs to motivate knowledge management, create goals for knowledge management, train its employees in how to carry out knowledge management and evaluate its knowledge management.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Psychology, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-40).

Försvarsmakten verkar i en föränderlig miljö. Detta ställer krav på en flexibel organisation som lär av hur omgivningens förändrade karaktär påverkar verksamheten. Detta bör även återspeglas i hur utveckling av utbildning inom Försvarsmakten går till. Erfarenheter kan ses som en del av den speglade förändringen av den miljö som verksamheten bedrivs i. I marinen har man utvecklat Marinens systematiska erfarenhetshantering som beskriver hur dragna erfarenheter skall omsättas i förändrad verksamhet. Syftet med uppsatsen är att utreda förekomsten av dokumenterade rutiner för hur erfarenheter från verksamheten tas till vara i utvecklingen av specialistofficersutbildningen. Syftet är också att utreda vilka förutsättningar som finns för att få de som studerar på specialistofficersutbildningen att arbeta med erfarenheter. Detta har utretts genom en kvalitativ dataanalys av de dokument som beskriver specialistofficersutbildningen och marinens systematiska erfarenhetshantering. Empirin i studien har granskats med hjälp av Peter. M Senge organisationsteori om att skapa en lärande organisation genom systemtänkande. Slutsatserna är att ett ramverk för hur erfarenheter skall omsättas i utveckling av utbildningen återfinns. Erfarenhetshantering och utbildning beskrivs i många av dokumenten som enskilda företeelser som kan härledas till bristande systemtänkande. Specialistofficersutbildningen och erfarenhetshanteringen har ett antal kontaktytor som innebär goda förutsättningar att implementera erfarenhetshantering i verksamheten.

Learning from one’s experience is crucial for success. If a companylearns to share knowledge in an effective way their mistakes will befewer and could lead to more productive ways of working, largerprofits and increased competitiveness.The purpose of this study has been to investigate formal andinformal knowledge management within a consultant firm’s projectbusiness, as well as investigating how far the various sorts ofknowledge travel through the organisation. The purpose has also beento develop an understanding for what encourages knowledge sharing inan organisation with several national offices distributed over largegeographical areas.This abductive study has been designed as a case-study at aconsultancy firm were the authors have done qualitative research byconducting both formal and informal interviews and observations, aswell as studied the company’s governing documents. The studyattempt to show to what degree the consultants follow their formalknowledge management, like the governing documents and for whatreasons do they follow or not follow their knowledge managementroutines. Factors which seems to promote or inhibit both formal andinformal knowledge sharing for the employees, as well as factors forknowledge sharing between the different regions in Sweden have beenpicked out. By doing so, potential improvements for the organisations“local” knowledge management routines have been defined. The aimhas also been to find ways to improve organisations knowledgefeedback with focus on the knowledge sharing between differentgeographic locations.Our research findings seem to both align with and oppose previousresearch. Often knowledge sharing is not done when a project istoo similar to another project, which is the opposite to previousresearch and that the common notion of “knowledge is power” doesnot seem to be a factor that hinders the knowledge shared in thestudied organisation. It is concluded that the company needs a datalibrary to be able to easily share knowledge across the regions anddevelop both institutional and organisational factors. They also need toclean up their governing documents and operation managementsystem and make sure to have both carrots and sticks when it comesto managing both formal and informal knowledge.

In the mid 60´s the Swedish Air Force started a disturbance reporting program to improve the flight safety. The reason was the large number of fatal aircraft crashes; of which many was hard to explain due to the lack of relevant data. This reporting program is still running and flight safety is today a natural part of flight operations. High standards in flight safety will improve the operative effect. This type of lessons learned are vital but not enough. Lessons learned from a tactical and operative perspective is needed. In 2013 the Air Force implemented a lessons learned-program to evaluate the yearly Air Force-exercises. The purpose of this study is to describe and compare the two LL-processes from a theoretical perspective to show how they contribute to the common knowledge and complement each other. The result shows that the processes look similar as they both from a theoretical perspective can be called formal with both collecting and connecting parts. On local level the organization are similar with local representatives, namely the Lessons Learned-officer and the Flight Safety-officer who supports local and central commanders. In both cases, the disturbance-program and LL-program, the aim is to manage the observations locally as far as possible. The disparity between the two processes are mainly the HQ-organization, where the flight safety-organization is staffed and have clear instructions and mandates. When it comes to the LL-process the responsibility for the actions is not clear in the HQ. Furthermore, the deviation reports are managed in a IT-system with a database while LL are managed in an Excel-sheet. An obvious disparity is that the disturbance-program runs without an end-date, while the LL-program is more like a sub-project to the Air-Force exercise. A general conclusion is the need for a common nomenclature within the Armed Forces concerning the Lessons Learned-process.

Due to advances in the conceptual understanding of organisational learning, armed forces tend to establish more permanent systems of formal learning than earlier, enhancing their ability to undergo military change. Striving towards inter-organisational emulation interoperability, meaning that systems are able to interact with each other, has become a necessity. Yet, such a quality is not embedded in the wide variety of theories on the subject, nor explicitly taken into account in the Swedish armed forces Lessons Learned handbook. By examining doctrines of NATO and the Swedish Armed Forces, comparing their approach towards organisational learning capabilities identified by Max Visser, this study aims to describe how the two can be understood as interoperable in the context of Lessons Learned. Additionally, by combining Visser’s theory with that of John R. Deni, providing degrees of interoperability efficiency, the study also serves to provide an analytical framework suitable for further evaluation of systems alike. The result shows that the Lessons Learned procedure of the Swedish armed forces can be considered as interchangeable with that of NATO in three out of four dimensions, leaving human resource management and development as room for improvement.

A critical factor in project success or failure, is the impact on project outcomes, caused by the relationship between the project manager and project sponsor. Theory researched provides the foundations between the relationship between project manager and sponsor for an analysis on project best practices. The objective of which is to apply these theories to help create a set of guidelines or recommendations to be implemented to help measure and then manage the relationship through project processes or guidelines. The analysis covers the established views on the roles of both manager and sponsor within a project as well as the relational issues that are a part of it. The impact of these issues on project outcomes are the foundation of this dissertation. A portion of the analysis will be using lessons learned from previous projects and part of this research is to nd best practices for identication and application of these lessons. Empirical data is in the form of a series of interviews with both the main company and a benchmarking process using three other companies. This will help identify the actual perceptions and complexities of the roles and the relationship between managers and sponsors. In order to better understand the di-culties and challenges that exist in the rela- tionship both parties can work to avoid or overcome them as they arise. The diffi-culties will be both hard in terms of technical knowledge as well as soft relaating to people skills. Knowing how the relationship functions best would be an important asset for each party and will greatly increase the chances of project success.