Integrating knowledge management with agile methodology to manage projects effectively
INTEGRATING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT WITH AGILE
METHODOLOGY TO MANAGE PROJECTS EFFECTIVELY
SVTH: Đỗ Văn Hòa,
Nguyễn Đức Mạnh, Đào Phương Nam
GVHD: ThS Đinh Thị Minh Nguyệt
Tó m tắt: Trong cá c tổ chức, quản lý tri thức ngày càng trở thành kỷ luật và thô ng lệ phổ
biến. Thật vậy, quản lý dự á n hiện đại đóng một vai trò quan trọng trong việc nâ ng cao hiệu quả
của quản lý tri thức. Phương pháp Agile là một cá ch tiếp cận mới nổi để quản lý cá c dự á n một
cá ch suô n sẻ. Bài bá o nhằm mục đích nghiên cứu kiến thức nền tảng về Quản lý tri thức và
Phương pháp Agile. Cuối cùng, một nghiên cứu điển hì nh có tên là sử dụng Quản lý tri thức và
Agile Kanban để quản lý cá c Dự á n cuối cùng trong khó a học ISD sẽ được minh họa đầy đủ.
Abstract: In organizations, knowledge management becomes more and more popular
discipline and practice. Indeed, modern project management plays an important role in improving
the efficiency of knowledge management. Agile Methodology is an emerging approach to manage
projects smoothly. The paper aims to study background knowledge of Knowledge Management
and Agile Methodology. Finally, a case study named using Knowledge Management and Agile
Kanban to manage Final Projects in the ISD course will be fully illustrated.
Keywords: Knowledge Management, Project Management, Agile Methodology, Agile
Frameworks, Kanban, Scrum, Parkinson’s Law.
I.
Introduction
Currently, companies have experienced rapidly changing business competitions and
constant technology innovations, requiring them to develop unique expertise through
creativity and breakthroughs in order to sustain the organizations in the long term. This
creative knowledge transforms into goods and services helping associations continue to
exist and expand in the business. Although products and services own different
characteristics, they are the final outcome or deliverables of various project initiatives of
Knowledge-Creating Company” in Harvard Business Review, successful corporates are
those that continually gain new knowledge, spread it broadly across the company, and
efficiently incorporate it into modern technologies and products [2]. This research paper
mentions some fundamental information of knowledge management. This is followed by
discovering Agile methodology in project management. The paper then illustrates a case
study called “Using Agile Kanban to Manage Final Projects in ISD course” so as to
definitely prove how knowledge management and Agile methodology are combined into
the project.
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II. Content
1.
Knowledge Management and its role in Project Management
1.1 Background information of Knowledge Management
The terminology and definition of Knowledge Management (KM) arose from the
management consulting areas [3]. Once the Internet appeared, those organizations
promptly discovered that an intranet, a closed network of the Internet, was a fantastic tool
for making knowledge available and sharing it among their geographically distributed
units. They also understood that developing technical tools and methods which they
obtained expertise could be a potential way to purchase these products to huge and
decentralized incorporations. A new product, nevertheless, requires a particular name, and
the name evolved was Knowledge Management. The first findings seem to come from
McKinsey & Co. Brook Manville in 1987 with the aim of launching an internal research
on their information analysis [4]. KM made its public debut in Boston in 1993, at a speech
organized by Ernst and Young.
Currently, Knowledge Management means the organization, capture, application,
and study of a group's mutual information. In the corporate world, knowledge
management often entails the upkeep of a knowledge base or portal where basic
knowledge relevant to the organization is stored. Only a few programs are capable of
actually transforming how an organization works, and knowledge management is one of
them [5].
1.2 The key benefits of knowledge management
The more easily and efficiently it communicates knowledge with its workers, the
better an organization performs. The following are some of the advantages of KM:
●More rapid decision-making
●Effective access to knowledge and information
●Enhanced collaboration and creativity
●Increased quality of data and information understanding
●Improved intellectual property protection
●Optimized training
1.3 Integrating Knowledge Management with Project Management
Every company wishes to use project management to offer superior goods and
services with long-term benefits to its consumers and users. If the organization can
successfully apply knowledge management, it will be the secret to project management
success and, as a result, will be capable of transforming the organization to excellence.
Nevertheless, for the company to transform further, knowledge management must be
combined with project management so as to collect information with the purpose of
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solving specific challenges and easily sharing knowledge assets [1]. It is important to
incorporate knowledge bases into projects such that project participants can combine their
own contributions to those of the project's goals and comply with the strategy of the
company. Levin, the author of the article “Knowledge Management success equals Project
Management success”, recommends the following nine principles for organizations in
order to successfully integrate knowledge management integration with project
management:
●Illustrate knowledge management simply so that all staff in the corporate can
understand it
●Make knowledge management become a work package in each project’s work
breakdown structure
●Create a knowledge management point of contact for every program and project, in
collaboration with the Enterprise Project Management Office
●Identify tasks, duties, and accountabilities for information management by using a
Responsibility Accountability Matrix (RAM)
●Demonstrate the significance of knowledge management to all stakeholders in the
enterprise
●Deliver knowledge management guidance and instruction to all stakeholders
●Generate a reward and recognition scheme for practical knowledge management
●Follow the efficiency of knowledge management by utilizing metrics constantly
●Companies should concentrate on their process improvement
In the last principle, organizations can use modern project management to track their
process improvement. Thus, the authors are going to introduce Agile methodology as a
wonderful guideline to this principle in the following section.
2. Some fundamental information about Agile methodology
2.1 The drawbacks of the traditional approach
In the past, waterfall methodology was considered one of the most popular standards
for software development. Before any coding could begin, the software development
process necessitated a massive amount of documentation. People, who are typically in
charge of the business analyst, first created a business requirements document that
included all of the information the company required in the application. These company
requirement documents were lengthy and thorough everything: overall strategy, detailed
technical requirements, and visual user interface designs, which was up to 200-page
document [6]. Furthermore, another disadvantage of this approach was that it was truly
expensive to make changes in the project. Even though the applications are basic, the
projects required a great number of team members and communication tools were
55
deficient at that time. Technical specifications were compulsory requirements they needed
to follow. If a requirement was altered, they would go through a long-lasting review and
approval process with the business leaders. This could lead to time-consuming
communicating changes in the team and costly fixing code.
2.2 The definition of Agile Methodology
Agile is an iterative method to software development and project management that
helps teams own a more versatile and effective way to bring products to market [7]. The
ability to move rapidly and efficiently is referred to as the term “agile”. As a result, when
opposed to other project methodologies, an Agile approach allows project teams to adapt
quicker and more easily. There are more a great number of mysteries in many present
projects than those of conventional project management approach could be satisfactorily
solved. It is difficult to record specifications and effectively adjust to changes due to this
ambiguity. Therefore, Agile is one of the most popular project management
methodologies that can adequately handle uncertainty.
Once mentioning Agile Methodology, four core values of Agile Manifesto are
shown below:
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan
The Agile approach is based on continuous sprints of project preparation and
execution, allowing teams to constantly adjust and mature their strategy, scope, and design
during the project [8]. Agile projects necessitate an iterative approach that allows for the
gradual, regular, and consistent delivery of usable goods to the customer or client. This
novel approach means that the project team can reliably produce tangible products without
being slowed down by changes and dynamic environment. Agile also provides regular
progress checks for both the project team and the client, as well as a high degree of
customer engagement, which is a considerable advantage in comparison with conventional
project management methodologies.
2.3 Popular frameworks in Agile
The theory embodied in the Agile Manifesto is shared by a variety of Agile
frameworks such as Scrum, Agile, Extreme Programming and so on. They, however, own
distinct methods, procedures, and techniques [9]. In the article, the authors mention only
two important Agile frameworks which are Scrum and Kanban. Here are some crucial
characteristics between them:
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Figure 1: The differences between Kanban and Scrum
After understanding the key differences between Agile and Kanban, there is still a
common question “Which one is the most suitable in recent projects?”. The answer is that
it depends on many factors including project objectives, the way of team collaboration, etc
[10]. If the organization needs to find a quick approach to get started or would like to see
instant results or face the case that goals can shift throughout the course of the project,
Kanban is the best choice. The company can select Scrum as the most appropriate Agile
framework if the project requires a clear structure and transparency, or the corporate
places customer-driven growth above any factors.
3.
Case Study: using Knowledge Management and Agile Kanban to manage
Final Projects in ISD course
3.1 Short Description of ISD Final Project
ISD stands for Information System Design. This course is annually held for third
year students in the second semester. The learning objectives of this course are to
understand the way of building information systems step by step. Students will find
opportunities of obtaining crucial knowledge/skills that developers should learn or
perceiving how to investigate the user story in correct format or having some experience
how to develop an application in Agile methodologies from real life project activities.
Therefore, the authors totally understand the importance and invaluable values of the
course. In the ISD Final Project, an effective education management system is going to be
57
built. The final outcome of this project is to form a website that helps school
administrators and teachers manage students in an effective and convenient manner.
Furthermore, the website is designed with a stunning interface, but it still ensures
provision of fundamental administrative tools such as news, marks, feedback and so on.
The detailed results of the project will be discussed further in the following sections.
3.2 Knowledge Management and Agile Methodology applications in the project
3.2.1
Knowledge Management applications
Shared Project Files and Lessons Learned Documents are two examples of
Knowledge Management applications which are effectively utilized in the ISD Final
Project. Shared Project Files is a system of shared documents and information that permits
team members to store, upload and comment about their performance [11]. In this case,
authors leverage Google Drive to save project documents. Besides, arranging folders
systematically and naming them meaningfully are also carefully accomplished. The
following figure will illustrate this given idea:
Figure 2: Project documents on Google Drive
Another application of Knowledge Management is Lessons Learned Documents.
Lessons learned refers to written records that represent both the positive and negative
outcomes of a project. These documents include previous tasks, strengths and weaknesses
in the current sprint, reasons and actions, and upcoming tasks in the next sprint. The
authors usually capture lessons learned through audio recordings and meeting recaps of
stakeholders’ meetings in each sprint.
3.2.2
Agile Methodology applications
In the project, Kanban is the most suitable Agile Methodology Framework on account of
flexible customization. Here is the picture mentioning the modification of this Agile
Methodology on Trello, a team collaboration tool.
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Figure 3: Task management on Trello
●Backlog (Blue labels): store references that helps team members search
information quickly
●To-do (Orange labels): identify tasks that are going to be implemented in the
future. Besides missions without a deadline will be placed in this list.
●Doing (Red labels): show all tasks that are surely doing. Setting deadlines is
compulsory
●Testing (Purple labels): verify whether the quality of the task is high-quality or
not. If no, the task will be back to To-do card with a new deadline. If yes, it will be moved
to Done card
●Done (Green labels): display all completed tasks after testing phase
3.3
Project Results
Thanks to effortless contributions from team members throughout three months, ISD
Final Project named “Effective Education Management System” has been completed with
flying colours by the ISD Rangers team including Do Van Hoa, Nguyen Duc Manh and
Dao Phuong Nam.
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Figure 4: Homepage
Figure 5: Administration Page
The web application is developed for teachers and administrators to manage students
at primary, secondary or high schools in urban areas such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City,
etc. Fundamentally, there are three important roles in the application: teachers,
administrators and students (parents). In the administrator role, many necessary privileges
such as managing teachers, students’ information, announcements are adequately
provided. Meanwhile, teachers can only concentrate on managing students’ marks and
receiving student lists from the administrator. Furthermore, administrators and teachers are
capable of using exporting student and teacher lists function. Parents and students mainly
view marks, announcements and send feedbacks to teachers. Due to the shortage of time,
timetable function will be designed and built in the future. The proposal is accepted
60
between team developers and the customer.
During implementing two mentioned techniques, some positive achievements has
been received. First of all, necessary information is retrieved and stored much effectively
by using Google Drive. Storing documents locally and arranging folders arbitrarily may
cause some difficulty in searching and upgrading crucial materials. As a result, the task
performance is not satisfactory due to time-consuming job relating to finding documents.
The approach to this problem is leveraging online storage such as Google Drive,
Microsoft OneDrive, etc. Following that, placing folders systematically and naming them
meaningfully should be thoroughly conducted. Thanks to these measures, it seems
relatively simple to seek and modernize important particulars in the project on the account
of less time searching required. Therefore, team performance is significantly improved.
The second outcome is handling missing deadlines and ensuring high standard by using
Trello as a principal team collaboration tool. Parkinson’s Law is an another issue that the
authors face while doing ISD Final Project. This term refers to the amount of work
expands to fill the time available for its completion [12]. For instance, if a team has one
week to complete tasks in the certain sprint. Its performance to finish them is fairly poor
during implementation. Until a day or some hours left, team members are forced to
accomplish missions under a great deal of stress and tension. Consequently, some tasks
are overdue or if they are finished, the quality is not guaranteed. Thus, setting deadlines
and instructions for each card in the “Doing” list is a great way to solve the existing
trouble. Particularly, team members can understand how to complete the tasks and
distribute their time and resources appropriately based on the guidelines and due dates.
III. Conclusion
The authors show some fundamental information of Knowledge Management, its
role in Project Management and Agile Methodology. Following that, a case study
integrating with all given factors is adequately described. It is believed that the result of
the case study has demonstrated the effectiveness of applying KM and Agile Methodology
in Project Management. Although the article is conducted thoroughly, there are still some
shortcomings including recommendations to optimize the effectiveness of upcoming
projects or how team leaders can evaluate the advantages of KM. These limitations are
great motivations to promote the authors implementing these ideas in the near future.
REFERENCES
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Processes in Organizations: Theoretical Foundations and Practice. ResearchGate.
[3]Davenport, T. H. (1998). Successful Knowledge Management Projects. Sloan
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Management Review , 43-57.
[4]Koenig, M. E. (2018). What is KM? Knowledge Management Explained.
KMWorld.
[5]Guru Technologies. (2021). What is Knowledge Management? From Guru:
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development
explained.
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[7]Atlassian. (2021). What is Agile? From The Agile Coach:
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parkinsons-law-to-your-advantage.html
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