Plans versus people: Comparing knowledge management approaches in IT-enabled business projects

This paper evaluates the impact of two approaches to knowledge management in projects one focused on aligning project documents ("the Plan-based approach") and another focused on developing shared understanding between different teams within a project ("the People-based approach"). A theoretical model and hypotheses are proposed and explored using data from a survey of 212 IT-enabled business projects. Results indicate that the people-based approach is more strongly influential on a project's success in securing business benefits. Although the plan-based approach is less influential, it does positively influence business benefit attainment and also supports the people-based approach. Thus, attaining shared understanding within the project team and aligning key documents are both important goals for a project's knowledge management strategy. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. APM and IPMA. All rights reserved.