Project histories and project learning - a knowledge management challenge

With the advent of information and communication technologies (ICT), some construction organisations have endeavoured to develop and maintain project history systems. These are generally repositories that contain the data from previous projects. However, they are often poorly designed, implemented, managed and applied. We argue in this paper that a key reason for this situation is lack of senior management support and a need for the proper integration of project histories into a company's overall strategy and vision. However, recent interest in organisational learning and knowledge management appears to have a positive impact upon management practice in the construction industry. Management in major companies are now incorporating these emerging business philosophies into their overall strategy and vision. With the adoption of knowledge management strategies into construction companies, it will be possible to access project histories and conduct project learning in an efficient way. This paper provides an interpretative investigation of the issues concerning project histories for one leading construction company in Australia. A systems approach is used in this study as a tool to comprehend the underlying processes and to highlight the related issues.