MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
FPT UNIVERSITY
TOPICS: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS IN VIETNAM
By
NGUYEN DINH HUAN
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of Master of Software Engineering
© Copyright by Nguyen Dinh Huan 2017
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 2
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
FPT UNIVERSITY
TOPICS: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS IN VIETNAM
By
NGUYEN DINH HUAN
A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements
for the degree of Master of Software Engineering
Supervisor: PhD. Phan Duy Hung
© Copyright by Nguyen Dinh Huan 2017
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 3
ABSTRACT
Knowledge management in the explosive digital information today is one of the things
of particular concern for organizations, businesses in general, and in information technology
businesses in particular. In Vietnam, knowledge management has begun to be focused in large
enterprises, large projects that have activities associated with foreign organizations. However,
it still has a classicalization, not fully promoting the capacity of it. The implementation of
knowledge management in IT projects in Vietnam is not worth as the role. While the majority
of IT enterprises in Vietnam are small and medium scale. This is a potential risk area for
personnel change, especially key personnel. On the other hand, projects that do not have
knowledge management, implementation experiences, and potential risks when implementing
a similar project will be repeated many times. This study will clarify the current status of
knowledge management in information technology projects in Vietnam, highlighting the need
for a suitable knowledge management model for IT projects in Vietnam. Based on the
selection of the popular knowledge management model in the world.
Otherwise, in order to write this thessis, I interviewed 40 IT experts involved in KM
strategies for IT organizations across VIETNAM to obtain data, based on their experiences
and expertise on projects, which were then, analyzed using content analysis. The surveys of
48 IT Projects in Vietnam which running in the year of 2015 and 2016. The output from the
analysis yielded variables and working hypotheses which were tested through the
questionnaire survey. Further data were obtained from 50 survey respondents who have been
mostly involved in KM initiatives for IT organizations across VIETNAM. The research
contributes to recommend the model of knowledge management in IT projects in Vietnam.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
To complete this thesis, thanks to a lot of help, support of many.
First of all, I would like to send my sincere thanks to PhD Phan Duy Hung, who
devoted me to guide me in selecting topics, approaching research issues and re-arranging the
content of this thesis so beautiful and logically.
Second, I would like to extend my thanks to my wife and my children, who have
sacrificed so much time that I can finish this thesis.
Third, I would like to thank the leaders and departments of Tan Dan Company as well
as the companies who helped me and provided their valuable information through survey
forms as well as their time so that I can interviewed and collected information to complete
this thesis.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .............................................................................................. 4
TABLE OF CONTENT .................................................................................................... 5
List of Tables..................................................................................................................... 8
List of Figures ................................................................................................................... 9
ACRONYMS .................................................................................................................. 10
CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW ......................................................................................... 12
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 12
1.1. Practical problem and necessity ............................................................................... 12
1.2. Recommended study ................................................................................................ 13
2. Research Subject ......................................................................................................... 13
2.1. Knowledge in IT projects ......................................................................................... 13
2.2. Research question..................................................................................................... 14
3. Scope of research ........................................................................................................ 14
4. Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................................ 16
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE AND CONCEPTUAL ............................................... 17
1. IT Project management conceptualization .................................................................. 17
1.1. IT Project ................................................................................................................ 17
1.2. IT project management: ........................................................................................ 17
2. IT Project in Vietnam ............................................................................................... 18
3. Knowledge Conceptualization .................................................................................... 18
3.1. Knowledge Definition .............................................................................................. 18
3.2. Data, Information and Knowledge ........................................................................... 19
3.3. Knowledge Classification ........................................................................................ 20
4. Knowledge Management Activities ............................................................................ 22
4.1. Knowledge Management Definitions ...................................................................... 22
4.2. Knowledge Management System ............................................................................. 24
4.3. Knowledge Management Process ......................................................................... 25
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4.3.1. Overview .............................................................................................................. 25
4.3.2. Organizational Culture and Knowledge management process: ..................... 27
4.3.3. Knowledge Management Models ....................................................................... 27
4.3.3.1. The KM Process Framework by Bukowitz and Williams (1999) ....................... 27
4.3.3.2. The KM Matrix by Gamble and Blackwell (2001) ............................................. 28
4.3.3.3. The Knowledge Management Process Model by Botha et al (2008) ................. 29
4.4. Knowledge management in project ...................................................................... 30
4.5. Knowledge management process in IT Project ................................................... 32
CHAPTER 3: CURRENT VIETNAM’S IT PROJECT ........................................... 41
1. ICT Sector in the Context of Vietnam Economy ........................................................ 41
1.1. Operational Environment ......................................................................................... 41
1.2. Vietnam ICT Market ................................................................................................ 43
1.3. Human Resource Base ............................................................................................. 47
1.4. Characteristics of Vietnam's IT Companies ............................................................. 48
2. Analysis of Vietnam's Information Technology Industry ........................................... 50
2.1 Macro-environment of IT Industry: PEST Analysis ................................................. 50
2.2 SWOT Analysis of Vietnam's IT Companies ....................................................... 51
3. Survey and analysis knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam ..................... 53
3.1. The events occurred ................................................................................................. 53
3.2. Knowledge management situation in IT projects in Vietnam .................................. 55
4. Chapter conclusions .................................................................................................. 55
CHAPTER 4: CASESTUDY AND ANALYSIS ......................................................... 57
1. Cases study ................................................................................................................. 57
1.1. The Context and Relevance of Cases Study ............................................................ 57
1.2. Limitation of the Cases Study .................................................................................. 57
1.3. Some Cases Study abstraction and review ............................................................... 57
1.3.1. The NASA Software Engineering Laboratory ...................................................... 57
1.3.2 Daimler Chrysler .................................................................................................... 58
1.3.3 Telenor Telecom Software ..................................................................................... 58
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1.3.4 Ericsson Software Technology .............................................................................. 59
1.3.5 An Australian Telecom Company .......................................................................... 59
1.4. Analysis the Tan Dan IT Project case study ............................................................ 60
1.4.1. Company overview: .............................................................................................. 60
1.4.2. OneGate project knowledge management casestudy ............................................ 62
2. Casestudy Analysis .................................................................................................... 66
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS................................................................................... 68
REFERENCE ................................................................................................................ 71
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 74
APPENDICES A: LIST OF VINASA'S SOFTWARE MEMBERS ........................ 74
APPENDEX B: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE MAIN SURVEY .......................... 89
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List of Tables
Table 1: Classification of Knowledge table .................................................................... 20
Table 2: Revenue of IT Industry in Vietnam .................................................................. 43
Table 3: IT Import/Export data ....................................................................................... 44
Table 4: Employee market .............................................................................................. 45
Table 5: List of Software Parks in Vietnam: ................................................................... 46
Table 6: In 2015, the IT labors distributed as below (ICT index 2016 report): .............. 47
Table 7: ICT grow speed ................................................................................................. 48
Table 8: PEST Analysis of Vietnam’s IT Industry ......................................................... 50
Table 9: SWOT Analysis of Vietnam’s IT Companies .................................................. 52
Table 10: Table of IT Project problem occurred in 48 IT project data collected in
Vietnam: ................................................................................................................................... 54
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List of Figures
Figure 1: Scope of study ................................................................................................. 16
Figure 2: B&W KM Framework process ........................................................................ 28
Figure 3: Knowledge Management Matrix .................................................................... 29
Figure 4: integrated knowledge management model ...................................................... 30
Figure 5: Micro-knowledge management process diagram ............................................ 39
Figure 6: macro-knowledge management process .......................................................... 40
Figure 7: Vietnam Hardware, electronics export by item in 2013 .................................. 44
Figure 8: Knowledge management applying analytic ..................................................... 55
Figure 9: Tan Dan company structure ............................................................................. 61
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ACRONYMS
ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
ANOVA Analysis of Variance
ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations
CEO Chief Executive Officer
CIEM Central Institute of Economics and Management
CMM Capability Maturity Model
DMS Defect Management System
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
FDI Foreign Direct Investment
FIFA Financial Information and Fixed Assets
FPT Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology
FSS FPT Software Solutions
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GNP Gross National Product
GSO Vietnam's General Statistics Office
H Hypothesis
HCMC HoChiMinh City
HR Human Resource
HTML Hypertext Markup Language
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol
IP Internet Protocol
IT Information Technology
IS Information System
ISO International Standard Organization
ISP Internet Service Provider
IXP Internet Exchange Access Providers
KM Knowledge Management
KMS Knowledge Management System
LAN Local Area Network
MANOVA Multivariate Analysis of Variance
MBO Management by Objective
MIS Management of Information System
MNC Multinational Corporation
MIC Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications
OC Organizational Culture
ODA Organizational Development Aid
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OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
OS Organizational Structure
PEST Political – Economic – Social – Technological (PEST Analysis)
POP Post Office Protocol
QA Quality Assurance
R&D Research and Development
R2 Coefficient of multiple determination in regression analysis
SD Standard Deviation
SECI Socialization – Externalization – Combination - Internalization
SPSS Statistical Package for Social Science
SWOT Strength - Weakness - Opportunities – Threat (SWOT Analysis)
UK United Kingdom
UN United Nations
US$ United States Dollar
USA United States of America
VCCI Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry
VIF Variable Inflation Factor
VINASA Vietnam Software Association
VNPT Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation
WAN Wide Area Network
WTO World Trade Organization
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CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW
1. Introduction
1.1. Practical problem and necessity
Knowledge management (KM) is invaluable to the construction industry due to its
potential in integrating knowledge across personal, organizational, project and industry
boundaries. KM implementation strategies can reap benefits such as improved project
performance and continuous improvement yet many projects are plagued with inefficiencies,
repetition of mistakes and lack of lessons learnt thereby contributing to additional project
costs (Al-Ghassani et al., 2004; Egbu, 2005; Suresh et al., 2008; Carrillo et al., 2013; Ren et
al., 2013; Garstenauer et al., 2014).
Knowledge management is an emerging discipline that promises to capitalize on
organizations’ intellectual capital. The concept of taming knowledge and putting it to work is
not new; phrases containing the word knowledge, such as knowledge bases and knowledge
engineering, existed before KM became popularized. The artificial intelligence community
has long dealt with knowledge representation, storage, and application. Software engineers
have engaged in KM-related activities aimed at learning, capturing, and reusing experience,
even though they were not using the phrase “knowledge management.” KM is unique because
it focuses on the individual as an expert and as the bearer of important knowledge that he or
she can systematically share with an organization. KM supports not only the knowhow of a
company, but also the know-where.
Knowledge is becoming one of the main assets for IT Company. Knowledge comes
from many different sources within the organization. Such sources include internal processes,
projects, customers and stakeholder information. As markets change, the way of doing
business evolves. In today’s market place many companies implement different projects to
deal with these changing environments. Projects accumulate a lot of intellectual knowledge
which can be later used by these same companies to add value, competitiveness and improve
future projects performance. Companies use Knowledge Management (KM) to create,
identify and distribute knowledge and lessons learned within the organization. However, as
projects have specific goals and unique deliverables that are never the same this may lead to a
difficulty in efficiently capturing project knowledge. The use of KM in the project
environment is gaining increased importance as it helps to improve the chances of a project
success. The success or failure of projects is highly dependant upon the ability and
willingness of people to identity knowledge and share it within organization. This
characteristic is dependant on the culture and environment organizations create for their
employees. Activities that are required to establish KM within projects include capturing,
organizing, refining and the exchange of captured knowledge.
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In IT Project in Vietnam, there are also many issues that need to be addressed,
especially knowledge management. At present, most IT projects in Vietnam do not pay much
attention to knowledge management (according to statistics, more than 80% of IT projects in
Vietnam do not currently have knowledge management). This research is expected to be a
first step to awakening IT project managers in Vietnam on knowledge management.
1.2. Recommended study
Operating in the knowledge-based economy, one of areas that concern Vietnamese IT
companies is the need to pursue effective knowledge management in IT Projects. Effective
knowledge management will facilitate the conversion process of tacit knowledge to explicit
knowledge and vice versa and this will eventually influence the learning process and
organizational performance. This research is expected to examine how knowledge is managed
within an IT Project in Vietnam, the impact of factors on effectiveness of knowledge
management process, the relationship between knowledge management and company
performance, and to suggest factors from an organizational capabilities perspective to enhance
the environment for enabling effective knowledge management inside the organization.
2. Research Subject
2.1. Knowledge in IT projects
Software development is frequently named a knowledge-intensive business that
involves a lot of different people working on the same product in different phases, through
different activities and with different skills (Rus & Lindvall, 2002). Software development
projects are by nature highly complex and include more than just technical knowledge such as
programming languages, development tools and debugging methodologies. Due to the high
complexity those projects cannot be managed by one individual developer and therefore
various people are involved in them (Ewusi- Mensah, 2003). The common set of people
involved consists of business analysts, software architects, programmers and testers, all with
different roles and different backgrounds (Chau & Maurer, 2004).
Swart and Kinnie (2003) divide tacit knowledge in software projects into two
categories; technical tacit knowledge and practice-based tacit knowledge. The technical tacit
knowledge is built on the explicit one, such as programming languages, and demonstrates
itself through shared practice. The practice-based tacit knowledge is visible through a
software developer's knowledge of short-cuts in the code and how the code should be applied
in order to achieve a high customer value (Swart & Kinnie, 2003). The two categories can be
compared to the ones mentioned by Johannessen previously, called practical-based knowledge
and familiarity knowledge respectively. Tiwana (2004) adds another key type of knowledge
that is required in software projects apart from the technical one as the importance of knowing
the domain in which the developed software is to be utilized; the business application domain.
It involves knowing the business processes of the customer, making sure that activities in the
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customer's business is embedded in the software and the main objective for developing the
system. In addition, one type of knowledge that is regarded important but less obvious in
software development is the one regarding how a solution came to be (Maajel & Happel,
2008; Rus & Lindvall, 2002). Maajel and Happel refer to it as contextualization and more
commonly it regards the traceability of the context. The authors state that it is highly
important that it is captured both when the software is built as well as when the software is
tested and errors are discovered. They emphasize the importance of building a bridge between
the person that provided the knowledge and the person that is to use the knowledge.
Apart from the knowledge that explicitly regard the developed software Rus and
Lindvall (2002) also point out another type of knowledge that very often is being disregarded
when new software developers are entering an organization. They highlight the importance of
making new developers aware about local policies, practices and existing development.. The
authors state that this knowledge is most often distributed through informal ways and point
out that in this way the knowledge becomes inaccessible to the whole organization. Therefore
a formal introduction is given as highly important for everyone to receive knowledge that is
important to get access to from the very beginning (Rus & Lindvall, 2002)
2.2. Research question
The main objective of the study is to build and test a model of determinants of
knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam. The following are specific research
questions:
- How do Knowledge management in IT projects in Vietnam now?
- What factors affect Knowledge Management in IT projects in Vietnam?
- What process should be used to manage knowledge in IT projects in Vietnam?
3. Scope of research
The main study is to examine the impact of organizational factors on the knowledge
management in IT companies including software service companies, software production
companies, hardware companies belonged to the Vietnamese Software Association
(VINASA) and listed in the Business Directory of the year 2014 provided by the Vietnam
Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The scope of this research focuses on investigating the
middle managers and directors of those companies who directly manage and control
enterprises' operations. Technical staff is also another source of information and they can
provide information for better understanding the leaders' behavior, culture, the mode and level
of interaction, and their impact on their own attitudes and willingness in sharing knowledge
with others as well as the level of knowledge transfer among them. The information
technology industry is a good context in which to examine the issue of knowledge
management for several reasons:
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- IT is a newly emerging industry. In both HCMC and Hanoi, a growing number of
companies provide advanced software services. Most of these companies are newly
established and only a few have operated for more than ten years. Vietnam's IT companies are
still at the early stage of development and have a high capacity potential. Although the
industry size is still small in comparison with that of other Asian countries, it has grown
rapidly over the past 15 years. The average growth rate of the industry over the last 5 years is
40% (in 2013 get 39.5 billion vs. in 2009 get 6.1 billion) and increased about 50% in last 3
years. Per annum with revenue of US$ 39.5 billion in the year 2013 (ICT White book, 2014).
At present, ICT sector is quickly increasing its contribution to GDP growing from less than
1% in 1993 to 23% in 2013 (Vietnam GDP of 2013: 171.2 billion USD). Although the
government is aware that the IT industry plays a key role in future economic development, the
development of Vietnam’s IT industry is still severely hampered by a lack of infrastructure, a
restrictive legal and regulatory environment, inadequate manpower and low managerial skills.
In order to compete internationally, Vietnam's IT companies not only need support from
government, but also need to build their own capabilities to better utilize the intellect and
experience of their own employees.
- Workers in IT companies are mainly IT engineers, IT specialists, and programmers
and are considered as highly-skilled workers (so called knowledge workers). In IT companies,
most work is of an intellectual nature and the major part of the workforce consists of well-
educated and qualified employees. Currently, Vietnam IT companies faced a shortage of high
skilled workers both in quantity and quality. The workforce for IT industry is a small
proportion (around 441 thousand – ICT white book 2013) of the overall 53 million working
population (GENERAL STATISTICS OFFICE of VIET NAM 2014). About 20% of IT
workforce is experienced. Although the government has policy to train and upgrade skills of
IT workforce, the IT companies themselves have to find the most cost-effective way to train
their own employees by facilitating the process of transferring expertise and experiences
among employees.
- Vietnam’s economy is being integrated into the global economy. The government is
strongly determined to develop the IT industry and considers it as a priority for boosting
economy development. In order to play in international market and compete against foreign
companies in domestic markets, Vietnam's IT companies have to find the will and more
effectively utilize their own workforce's intellectual capital to improve performance and
innovation. Empirical investigation was undertaken to generate data and information in
support of the conceptual model. IT companies having more than 50 employees were targeted
as these businesses need significant organizational capabilities in order to (i) manage process
of knowledge management, and (ii) exploit the intellectual capital of their knowledge
employees who possess diversified knowledge areas in management and expertise. Targeted
companies are mainly located in Hanoi and in two software parks in HCMC. In this research,
the author focuses on investigating the organizational factors/context-factors influencing the
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intra-organizational management of task-related knowledge among employees of target
companies.
Scope of this study:
Figure 1: Scope of study
4. Structure of the Thesis
This thesis has 5 chapters, research on knowledge management in information
technology projects in Vietnam. Each chapter deals with the basic contents of how to clarify
the answers on knowledge management in IT projects in Vietnam. What model of knowledge
management systems should be implemented. It is recommended to select models, knowledge
management systems in IT projects in Vietnam to suit reality. Specific chapters are as
follows:
Chapter 1. Overview, in this chapter, issues the need for research and general
introduction to the object, scope of research including knowledge, knowledge management,
IT projects, IT project management. In addition, this chapter also raises a number of questions
that need to be clarified during the course of the study. Each question will be clarified in each
chapter of the dissertation.
Chapter 2. Literature and Conceptual. In this chapter, we cover concepts related to
research, the development of concepts as well as different definitions for each concept of
knowledge, knowledge management, IT projects, IT project. This chapter also outlines the
issues that exist in the implementation
Chapter 3. CURRENT VIETNAM'S IT PROJECT, in this chapter provides an overview
of the IT economy in Vietnam and the ICT market. This chapter also analyzes the initial ICT
market in Vietnam and IT projects in Vietnam, and from that point of view, the status of
knowledge management implementation for IT projects in Vietnam needs to be given greater
attention.
Chapter 4. This chapter focuses on some casestudy in knowledge management in IT
projects around the world and in Vietnam, analyzing and concluding on the need to select a
suitable model for Knowledge management in IT projects in Vietnam
Project
IT Project
IT Project in
Vietnam
Knowledge
Management
Scope of this
Study
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Chapter 5 Summarize the results of the analysis, evaluation and conclusion of the
previous chapters and from there, to come to an overall conclusion for the entire project.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE AND CONCEPTUAL
1. IT Project management conceptualization
1.1. IT Project
There are various types of IT projects that an organization could undertake, including:
• Software development and implementation
• Hardware installations (e.g., servers, desktop computers, or telephony systems)
• Network system upgrades
• Data management
For any IT project, the project will have a start point and an end point, and the part in
between is known as the project life cycle often includes some processes: Initiation,
Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Controlling, Closing.
1.2. IT project management:
Involves a structured approach to planning, organizing, leading, and controlling
information technology projects.
In each process of Project, there are some actions to do.
In Initiation process - A sponsor and a governing team (sometimes called a steering
committee) are appointed, and they clearly define the goals and objectives for the project. A
project manager is assigned to the project, a project team is recruited, and the project charter
is created.
In Planning process: - The project manager and the project team work together to
define all the deliverables, or intended outputs, of the project, and then plan all of the tasks
needed in order to produce each deliverable. Each task is assigned a start date, end date, and
responsible person(s), and all of the tasks together roll up into the project plan. The project
planning processes can be repetitive in nature, and it's quite normal for planning to occur
often throughout the project.
In Execution process: -The project team executes the project plan to create the
deliverables of the project.
In Monitoring and Controlling process: - As the project is being executed by the
project team, the project manager monitors and controls the work of the team for time, cost,
scope, quality, risk, and other factors. The project manager regularly reports the project status,
as well as any issues and risks, to the project sponsor and steering committee. To ensure that
the project meets its objectives, monitoring and controlling is also an ongoing process.
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IN closing process: - At the end of each phase of the project, and at the end of the
entire project, project closure ensures that all of the project work has been completed, is
approved, and that ownership of the project deliverables have been handed over from the
project team to operations.
2. IT Project in Vietnam
Similar to other countries in the world, in Vietnam, IT projects are deployed mainly in
the public sector. State agencies, state-owned enterprises, banks, large corporations, social
organizations. IT projects can be included network infrastructure, hardware equipment;
database; Software applications. Most of the IT projects are mixed include the combination of
technical infrastructure and application software with database.
IT projects are deployed in different ways such as: hiring on-demand production
enterprises, self-developing the software and installation the hardware, receiving and
transfering products from other agencies and organizations.
The failure rate of IT projects in Vietnam is unknown, due to several reasons: the fear of
disclosure of project failure information, unwillingness to disclose failure for fear of influence
To the reputation of the manager, whether the project is failing or not, there are no specific
criteria for project collision failure.
Adoption of budget increases, prolonging project life, or changing business
requirements is very easy accepted by owner for general projects and information technology
projects in particular in Vietnam.
3. Knowledge Conceptualization
3.1. Knowledge Definition
The question of the knowledge nature is challenging. Although philosophers have been
discussing the issue for many years, the search for a formal definition continues. The review
of the literature has resulted in several definitions of knowledge. For example, knowledge is a
justified personal belief that increases an individual’s capacity to take effective action
(Nonaka, 1994). Action in this context refers to physical skills and competencies,
cognitive/intellectual activity or both. It is described as “information combined with
experience, context, interpretation and reflection”, and “valuable information in action”
(Davenport et al., 1998). Knowledge is “a dynamic human process of justifying personal
belief towards the truth” (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Knowledge is defined as a set of
structural connectivity patterns (Meyer and Sugiyama, 2007). The term “structural
connectivity patterns” allows the inclusion of knowledge on different collective levels
(individual and organizational). Knowledge is also defined as (i) facts, information, and skills
acquired by a person through experience or education, the theoretical or practical
understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and
information; or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation
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(Wikipedia, 2007). Knowledge is not absolute, but dynamic in nature and context specific.
For the purpose of this study, the concept of knowledge developed by Davenport and Prusak
(1998) is adopted because it is quite complete and reflects the contextual and personal aspects
of knowledge:
Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and
expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences
and information. It originates in the minds of knower. In organizations, it is often embedded
not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices,
and norms.
Knowledge is fluid as well as formally structured; it is intuitive and therefore hard to
capture in words or understand completely in logical terms. Knowledge is neither individually
owned nor static, but embedded in individual employees, project teams, departments, and
business units. It also resides in trading systems, business operations, innovation systems, thus
it is dynamic and fluid in organizational processes and practices.
3.2. Data, Information and Knowledge
The distinction between data, information and knowledge has often been made in the
literature. The three concepts can be arranged on a single continuum depending on the extent,
to which they reflect human involvement with, and processing of, the reality at hand (Tsoukas
and Vladimirou, 2001). This means data requires minimal human judgment, whereas
knowledge requires maximum judgment. Judgment arises from the self-conscious desire to
reorder, to rearrange and redesign what one knows and thus creates new angles of vision or
new knowledge for a particular purpose.
Data represents raw numbers, objective facts and observations. It has no context and is
not directly meaningful (Zack, 1999). Information is the result of placing data within a
meaningful context. It can be conceived as processed data with relevance and purpose
(Chennamaneni, 2006). Knowledge is something more than information (Greiner et al., 2007).
It is validated and authenticated information that is ready to apply to decisions and actions
(Alavi and Leidener, 2001). Knowledge involves the processing, creation or use of
information in the mind of the individual. Knowledge is information combined with
experience, context, interpretation, reflection and perspective (Davenport et al., 1998; Al-
Alawi et al., 2007) that adds a new level of insight. The above discussion suggests that: (i) a
great deal of emphasis is given to understanding the differences between data, information,
and knowledge and drawing implications from the difference, (ii) because knowledge is
personalized, in order for an individual or a group’s knowledge to be useful for others, it must
be expressed in such a manner as to be interpretable by the receivers; and (iii) hoards of
information are of little value, only that information which is actively processed in the mind
of an individual through a process of reflection, enlightenment, or learning can be useful.
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3.3. Knowledge Classification
Regarding the attribute of knowledge, most knowledge experts agree that knowledge is
either explicit or tacit (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; De Long and Fahey, 2000; Steward,
1999, Greiner et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2007). Tacit knowledge is personal, intuitive, insightive,
context-sensitive, dynamically created and experienced-based, subjective and experiential
(Nonaka, Toyama and Nagata, 2000; Greiner et al., 2007), and resides within the minds of
people (Steward, 1999). It is hard to formalize and communicate to others. Tacit knowledge is
deeply rooted in an individual's actions and experience, as well as in the ideals, values or
emotions he or she embraces (Nonaka and Konno, 1998). It is something known but not easily
articulated (Dixon, 2000). It is more problematic because it is not so easily disseminated
(Mullin, 2005). This suggests that tacit knowledge is non-transferable without the exchange of
key personnel and all the systems that support them, and may be best transferred through
more interpersonal means and using processes that are less structured. By contrast, explicit
knowledge is 22Hknowledge that has been or can be articulated, codified, and stored in
certain media (Greiner et al., 2007). It can be readily transmitted to others. The most common
forms of knowledge are manuals, patents, reports, documents, assessments, and databases
(Wikipedia, 2007). This suggests that explicit knowledge can be transferred through more
technology-driven, structured processes such as information systems (Martensson, 2000).
Organizations need to be aware that the type of knowledge may be critical factor in deciding
on the type of process needed to facilitate the knowledge management process in general, and
the knowledge transfer process, in particular.
In addition to classification of the nature of knowledge, according to the view of the
social system, knowledge can be classified as human knowledge, social knowledge and
structured knowledge (De Long and Fahey, 2000) or declarative, procedure, and causal
knowledge (Quinn et al., 1996). Human knowledge or individual knowledge constitutes what
individuals know or know how to do. It manifests in skill or expertise and usually combines
both explicit and tacit knowledge. Social knowledge exists only in relationships between
individuals or within groups. It is largely tacit knowledge shared by group members and
develops only because of interaction among individuals. Structured knowledge is embedded
in an organization’s systems, processes, tools and routines. Knowledge in this form is explicit.
Table 1: Classification of Knowledge table
Sq. Knowledge
Type
Definitions Sources
1 Tacit Knowledge is rooted in actions, experience,
and involvement in specific context. It is
created through intensive interaction, formal
Dixon (2000)
Mullin (2005)
Greiner et al. (2007)
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and informal communication, and shared
longterm
goals and vision.
Lee et al. (2007)
2 Explicit Articulated, generalized knowledge. Explicit
knowledge can be formally codified, stored,
and easy to be transferred by using ICT. It is
under a form of transcriptions of work
processes, paper or electronic documents.
Martensson (2000)
Greiner et al. (2007)
Lee et al. (2007)
Mullin (2005)
3 Individual Created and inherent in the individual. De Long, Fahey
(2000)
4 Social
Created and inherent in collective actions of a
group.
De Long, Fahey
(2000)
5 Structure
Embedded in an organization’s systems,
processes, tools and routines.
De Long, Fahey
(2000)
6 Declarative Know-what: is knowledge of the things. Lowendahl et al.
(2001)
Quinn et al (1996)
7 Procedure Know-how: is knowledge of how to do things. Lowendahl et al.
(2001)
Quinn et al (1996)
8 Causal Know-why: requires a deeper understanding of
interrelationships across knowledge areas-it
may require a systematic perspective and
provides more robust knowledge framework
for grounding decisions and actions in
complex, uncertain context.
Lowendahl et al.
(2001)
Quinn et al (1996)
Care-why: requires socially contextualized
knowledge.
Lowendahl et al.
(2001)
Quinn et al (1996)
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4. Knowledge Management Activities
4.1. Knowledge Management Definitions
There are numerous definitions of knowledge management existing in the literature due
to the wide range of interest, perspectives and issues represented by various authors. There is
an agreement that three major paradigms of knowledge management exist: (i) information
technology paradigm, (ii) humanist paradigm; and (iii) holistic approach paradigm (Maier,
2002; Gloet and Berrell, 2003).
There exists an in-exhaustive list of definitions of KM, several of which were generated
in the last two decades, the period in which KM gained enormous popularity among
researchers and practitioners. The multitude of definitions can appear daunting and confusing
(Jashapara 2011), conflicting and overlapping (Anan and Singh 2011). Yet it has been argued
that the cause can be linked to the multidisciplinary nature of KM having its roots in a number
of other distinct disciplines such as philosophy, human resource management, information
systems, linguistics, and business (Dalkir 2005, Schwartz 2006). As a result there is a
tendency of each definition toward the root discipline it originated from.
According to Davenport and Prusack (1998), ‘knowledge management draws from
existing resources that an organization may already have in place, good information systems
management, organizational change management and human resource management practices'.
This definition has its roots in information systems and human resource management. Newell
et al. (2009) defined KM from a business perspective as '…improving the ways in which
firms facing highly turbulent environments can mobilize their knowledge base in order to
ensure continuous innovation'. Similarly, Skyrme (2011) defined KM as ‘the explicit and
systematic management of vital knowledge and its associated processes of creation,
organization, diffusion, use and exploitation in pursuit of business objectives.
Apart from the multidisciplinary perspective, it is often debated whether KM is a tool, a
process or strategy. As a tool, Bounfour (2003) defined KM as a set of procedures,
infrastructures, technical and managerial tools, designed towards creating, sharing and
leveraging information and knowledge within and around organization. As a process, Fischer
(2001) defined KM as a cyclic process involving, creation, integration and dissemination of
knowledge. Similarly, Skyrme (2002) presented KM as a continuous cyclic process
comprising of knowledge identification, collection, classification, storage, sharing, access,
usage, and new knowledge creation. As a strategy, O'Dell and Grayson (1997) defined KM as
a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time, and
helping people to share and put the information into action in ways that strive to improve
organizational performance. Despite the differences and variations in definitions of
knowledge management, commonalities were found and can be summarized as the
operational definition as follows:
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‘Knowledge management entails harnessing and integrating knowledge across
boundaries through the adoption of processes and supporting tools for the strategic benefit of
an organization’ Harnessing and integrating knowledge involve the interactions between the
two types of knowledge namely tacit and explicit. The interactions between the knowledge
types have been conceptualized by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) who proposed a model for
their facilitation. The model is known as the ‘SECI’ (Socialization, Externalization,
Combination, and Internalization) and is widely adopted in knowledge management circles.
Having explored the definitions of knowledge management, the four commonalities were
found and are stated as follows:
- Harnessing and integrating knowledge (conceptualized by the SECI model)
- Adopting a knowledge management process
- Utilizing knowledge management tools
- Aligning knowledge management with organizational strategy
These definitions may be divided into two main groups; the first focuses on processing
the single knowledge element and enumerates functions of its life cycle. The following
definitions may be mentioned here:
Knowledge management is a process of systematically and actively identifying,
activating, replicating, storing, and transferring knowledge (Probst, Raub, & Romhard, 2003).
Knowledge management is a method to simplify and improve the process of creating,
sharing, distributing, capturing, and understanding knowledge in a company (Karlsen &
Gottschalk, 2004).
Knowledge management is a method of controlling processes of knowledge creation, its
codification, ordering, storing, retrieval, processing, transfer, and application (Jemielniak &
Koźmiński, 2008).
Knowledge management scope is about the generation, communication, transformation,
and application of knowledge that is sufficient unto the reasoned action in situated contexts in
which individuals and organizations find themselves (Zhu, 2008).
Another group of knowledge management definitions and characteristics focuses on the
whole knowledge possessed by individuals and organizations and the benefits of its
application:
Knowledge management is a process of systematically and actively managing and
leveraging the stores of knowledge in an organization (Laudon & Laudon, 1998).
The challenge of knowledge management is how to generate and leverage collective
knowledge in the firm to create value that leads to competitive advantage (Zhang, 2007).
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Knowledge management is about harnessing the intellectual and social capital of
individuals in order to improve organizational learning capabilities (Swan, Newell,
Scarbrough, & Hislop, 1999).
Knowledge management is a systematic approach to managing and leveraging an
organization’s knowledge assets, which may include knowledge of the organization’s
customers, products, market, processes, finances, and personal services (Cope, Cope, &
Hotard, 2006).
Knowledge management refers to the developing body of methods, tools, techniques,
and values through which organizations can acquire, develop, measure, distribute, and provide
a return on their intellectual assets (van Donk & Riezebos, 2005).
Knowledge management is a disciplined, holistic approach to using expertise effectively
for competitive advantage (Arkell, 2007).
Knowledge management deals with the organizational optimization of knowledge
through the use of various technologies, tools, and processes to achieve set goals (Kamara,
Anumba, Carrillo, & Bouchlaghem, 2003).
4.2. Knowledge Management System
The issue of knowledge management systems has probably always been the most
discussed and debated topic within knowledge management (KM). Even though knowledge
management systems are not the most important part of KM (with some arguing that they are
not even absolutely necessary), this is still the subject that generates most interest.
There are several definitions of KMS. Knowledge management systems are tools to
effect the management of knowledge and are manifest in a variety of implementations
(Davenport et al., 1998) including document repositories, expertise databases, discussion lists,
and context-specific retrieval systems incorporating collaborative filtering technologies.
According to Alavi and Leidner (2001), “KMS refers to a class of information systems
applied to managing organizational knowledge”.
They are IT-based systems developed to support and enhance the organizational
processes of knowledge creation, storage, transfer and application. “Knowledge management
system is also considered as a system for managing knowledge in organizations, supporting
creation, capture, storage and dissemination of expertise and knowledge” (Wikipedia, 2007).
It enables employees to have access to the organization’s knowledge of facts, sources of
information, and solutions. Then, they can use that knowledge in the context of their own
roles. KMS offers organizations the ability to be flexible and response more quickly to
changing market conditions, the ability to be more innovative, as well as improving decision-
making and productivity (Alavi and Leidner, 2002).
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Knowledge management (KM) is the process of creating, sharing, using and managing
the knowledge and information of an organization (Girard, John P.; Girard, JoAnn L. (2015).
"Defining knowledge management: Toward an applied compendium"). It refers to a
multidisciplinary approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of
knowledge (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Archived from the original on
March 19, 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2014. ).
4.3. Knowledge Management Process
The processes of knowledge management include knowledge identification, creation,
acquisition, transfer, sharing, and exploitation (Abdul Rahman, Yahya, Beravi, & Wah, 2008).
4.3.1. Overview
It is essential to manage the created knowledge within the organization to benefit from
it. The interviewees recalled only four processes of managing knowledge: capturing,
updating, archiving and sharing:
- Capturing: Respondents used the term «capturing» to describe the collection of
knowledge during and after project completion from external and internal sources.
- Updating: The term «updating» was used by interviewees to describe the process of
enhancing and developing knowledge located in the organization.
- Archiving: This is the process of knowledge storing, according to the majority of the
respondents. The storage of knowledge in different project phases is an archive of the project
events, and if it is made complete and structured in the company server in an easy and
accessible way, it can present a real archive of the project.
- Sharing: This was cited by respondents as the process of transferring knowledge
between project members and also between projects. Most of the interviewee respondents
stated that we share knowledge during our technical review meetings and through the
subject’s workshop meetings; during those meetings we exchange new ideas on how to
resolve a technical problem.
In the literature, the KM process is characterized by highly detailed and complex
studies. The author found in the literature many other processes of KM not recognized by
respondents, such as identification, storage, mapping, dissemination, embedding,
producing, driving, understanding and measuring, leveraging…
Some of the emerged processes overlap with the cited process. Certainly there is a gap
in the understanding and application of KM processes, but this gap cannot be evaluated at the
present stage due to the preliminary character of the research phase.
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Given the wide range of terms used in the literature, the author will use during this
phase five hybrid subcategories of KM processes, which are: creation, capturing, sharing,
saving and dissemination.
These subcategories were fixed after comparing the KM processes found in the data and
the literature. The researcher saw that they are the main and broadest processes to elaborate in
this initial phase.
- Creation: This is concerned with adding value to previous knowledge through
innovation, particularly in developing new skills and competencies of employees (Hussain &
Lucas, 2004), who discuss KM as a process that helps organizations identify, select, organize,
disseminate and transfer knowledge. The main focus for creating knowledge was related to
researching new ideas and products from external sources. In terms of creating knowledge, it
may be created in a purposeful manner such as through R&D or much more serendipitously
through the problem-solving process on a construction project as noted by Kazi, Koivuniemi,
& Moksen (2005).
- Capture: Capturing Created knowledge is the first essential process of KM. This
process was judged as not effectively implemented, and according to several interviewees,
knowledge is not captured from individuals.
- Saving: Saving can include updating old knowledge and archiving new knowledge).
This procedure is not implemented in several Libyan organizations according to interviewees.
Knowledge is not updated and archived.
- Dissemination: While sharing, transfer and dissemination seem to have the same
meaning; they are different depending on the two sides participating in this process. After
conducting an in-depth literature review, the author selected and adopted the definition that
makes sharing a process more related to the interaction
Between individuals; transfer is more related to exchange between groups (project
teams, sub teams), while the dissemination terminology comprises both the sharing and
transfer of knowledge. According to the interviewees» outcomes, in this case, more
specifically, the project managers» knowledge transfer within the company organization is
very weak. One of the respondents stated that «it’s quite rarely that we meet with other project
teams and project managers and discuss critical issues, as it’s not a habit that other project
managers attend review meetings related to a specific project. This is the situation we have
and in my view it’s not supporting the share and transfer of knowledge within our company».
It seems that there is a sort of commitment issue related to knowledge sharing at the
individual level.
One of the respondents said: «I am not prepared to share my acquired knowledge in the
best practices with other members of the project team; it’s a result of my personal
accumulated experience, which is the result of years of efforts spent on self-development».
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Individual sharing constraints within project teams, including project managers and
their teams, will be discussed with further consideration as the research proceeds, to evaluate
the gap and identify causal conditions of this issue.
4.3.2. Organizational Culture and Knowledge management process:
The importance of a knowledge sharing culture as an enabler for the transfer and
creation of knowledge is directly addressed by such authors as Bukowitz & Williams (1999),
Davenport and Prusak (2000), and Gamble and Blackwell (2001). In order to make
knowledge management initiatives work in practice, the employees within the firm must be
willing to share their knowledge with others. Leaders must understand the culture both on an
organizational and community level. While culture often exists on an organizational level,
each community may have its own norms, perspectives, and collective understandings. Their
willingness to share and to seek knowledge will be influenced by these collective views.
One major influence to a culture's knowledge sharing willingness is the issue of
reciprocity (Davenport & Prusak 2000). This refers to the individual's need to perceive a
current or future return on the knowledge he chooses to share. This could be in the form of
direct compensation of some kind; it could be something intangible like enhancing the
individual's reputation; but it can also be the knowledge that the favor will be returned the
next time he requires assistance.
Finally, internal competition is yet another aspect of organizational culture that may
interfere with the knowledge sharing and knowledge creation process.
4.3.3. Knowledge Management Models
There are many models of knowledge management in the world that many researchers
have proposed. Each model has persuasive arguments on which to base the construction.
Within the scope of this study, the author would like to point out three commonly used and
widely known models
4.3.3.1. The KM Process Framework by Bukowitz and Williams (1999)
B&W KM Framework
This KM model depicts the process that defines the strategy for management to build,
divest, and enhance knowledge assets. It is a model that emphasizes the "why" and "when"
aspects. The strengths of this model rest on its strategic focus, which essentially puts
knowledge management action into context. It is also worth noting that the notion of
"divestment" is included - something which is often missing from KM models.
KM initiatives are the result of the response to tactical and strategic changes and needs.
The model provides a great overview of the strategy behind KM but it does not include any
deeper insight into what initiatives are suitable in a given instance.
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Figure 2: B&W KM Framework process
4.3.3.2. The KM Matrix by Gamble and Blackwell (2001)
The KM Matrix
This KM model presents a general theoretical framework, as well as specific guidelines
for implementation.
The KM process is split into four stages. First management must locate the sources of
knowledge. Then they must organize this knowledge so as to assess the firm's strengths and
weaknesses and determine its relevance and reusability. This is followed by socialization,
where various techniques are used to help share and disseminate it to whomever needs it in
the organization. Finally, the knowledge is internalized through use.
As all sequential models, the steps are not to be taken literally, but they do provide an
excellent overview of the role of the KM manager. However, one limitation of this model is
its focus. First of all, the overall strategic role outline by Bukowitz and Williams is not
included. Secondly, KM's role here is limited to knowledge sharing, omitting the processes of
knowledge acquisition/creation and divestment. This is a perfectly legitimate approach to KM
where the focus is on the sharing and retrieval of existing knowledge, but it does not fulfill the
scope of the knowledge management definition outlined on this site.
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Figure 3: Knowledge Management Matrix
4.3.3.3. The Knowledge Management Process Model by Botha et al (2008)
The Knowledge Management Process Model
This model attempts to offer a more realistic overview of the KM process. The three
broad categories overlap and interact with one another. Like Gamble & Blackwell, the focus
is on managerial initiatives. Here too the strategic focus (the "when" and the "why" as
opposed to the "what") is omitted. It is noteworthy that this model does include the creation of
new knowledge as a specific KM initiative.
The model further shows which of the three categories are more people oriented and
which are more technology focused. Whether or not knowledge sharing should be largely
technology focused is certainly debatable and it is something that I will address in future
sections. However, for better or for worse, this is largely how organizations tend to approach
the issue i.e. as a technological rather than organizational and social challenge.
We have now looked at three models that take very different approaches to KM. There
is one other important aspect relating to KM that has not been directly dealt with by these
models. To referring and choosing dependent upon data and information management, but is
paramount for future KM initiatives.
Based on these models, as well as on the topics discussed, on of version of an integrated
knowledge management model.
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Figure 4: integrated knowledge management model
Choosing the model:
From each model analysis, the last model which focus on the IT managerial initiatives.
It is very useful for nowaday IT projects in Vietnam. Because it is an integrated knowledge
management model, therefore it is not dependent on the subjective will of each participant.
The knowledge will automatically be collected and filtered for storage and sharing. This will
not affect the mentality of programmers when they have the unwillingness to share their
knowledge or experience with other colleagues.
4.4. Knowledge management in project
Knowledge is the most important resource needed for project management. The aim of
this article is to present a full, consistent model of project knowledge management. There are
two basic types of project knowledge: micro-knowledge, needed for performing a single task
(or its part), and macro-knowledge (in other words, all the knowledge possessed by people
from a given organizational level). Project knowledge is managed at four distinct levels:
individual, project, organization, and global. The article describes the micro-knowledge life
cycle and macro-knowledge life cycles from each organizational level, as well as the
processes of vertical knowledge flow between organizational levels. Proper knowledge is a
basic prerequisite for effective project management.
According to Sankarasubramanian (2009), all projects have one thing in common—
knowledge. The Japanese project management standard recognizes knowledge and experience
as the main sources of project value (Project Management Association of Japan [PMAJ], 2005
a, p. 86). Projects may be seen as knowledge management processes (Sauer & Reich, 2009).
Project knowledge management, especially in complex projects, is one of the main success
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factors in project management; lack of project knowledge management is one of the main
reasons for project failure (Desouza & Evaristo, 2004). Knowledge about project
management, explicit as well as tacit, plays a decisive role in understanding this discipline
(Morris, 2004).
Systematizing the area of project knowledge management is the main goal of this
article. This area, which developed in parallel to other areas of knowledge in project
management like risk management, quality management, or communication management, has
up until now not been as systematized as those areas, which are described in detail in A Guide
to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). The relatively short period
in which practitioners and researchers have been interested in project knowledge management
is probably the main reason for this situation. The first papers about project knowledge
management date back to 1987 (Boddie, 1987; Gulliver, 1987) and have attracted the
attention of practitioners and researchers since that time. Many articles, some books (Love,
Fong, & Irani, 2005; Milton, 2005; Sense, 2007a), and special issues of professional journals
devoted to project knowledge management (DeFillippi, 2001; Lampel, Scarbrough, &
Macmillan, 2008; Love et al., 2005; Reifer, 2002; Susman & Majchrzak, 2003; Sydow,
Lindqvist, & DeFillippi, 2004) have been published. Project knowledge has been collected in
bodies of knowledge (e.g., Association for Project Management [APM], 2006; Project
Management Institute [PMI], 2008a), standards (e.g., International Organization for
Standardization [ISO], 2003), competency standards (e.g., International Project Management
Association [IPMA], 2006), methodologies (e.g., Office of Government Commerce [OGC],
2005; PMAJ, 2005a, 2005b), and maturity models (e.g., PMI, 2008b; Software Engineering
Institute [SEI], 2006).
General classification of knowledge management perspectives and definitions is valid
and important for project knowledge management and processes from this area. For example,
papers by Prencipe and Tell (2001); Smith (2001); Boh (2007); Tan, Carrillo, Anumba,
Bouchlaghem, Kamara, and Udeaja (2007); Blessing, Goerk, and Bach (2001); Schindler and
Eppler (2003); Kotnour (2000); Enberg, Lindkvist, and Tell (2006); Jackson and Klobas
(2008); Sense (2005); Söderlund (2004); and Whyte, Ewenstein, Hales, and Tidd (2008)
describe processes performed in projects on knowledge needed to perform a single activity, or
needed for solving a single problem or a component part of one. In the field of project
knowledge management, there are also other types of processes that pertain to all the
knowledge possessed by people from different organizational levels (i.e., their knowledge
assets). Processes pertaining to a project team’s knowledge assets are described by, among
others, Kotnour (1999); Cuel and Manfredi (2006); Kasvi, Vartiainen, and Hailikari (2003);
Bower and Walker (2007); Blessing et al. (2001); K. G. Cooper, Lyneis, and Bryant (2002);
Levin and Rad (2007); Hanisch, Lindner, Muller, and Wald (2008); and Reich, Gemino, and
Sauer (2008). Other project knowledge management processes are performed at the level of
the organization that carries out the projects. Processes from this level are described by,
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among others, Kivrak, Arslan, Dikmen, and Birgonul (2008); Disterer (2002); Keegan and
Turner (2001); Arthur, DeFillippi, and Jones (2001); Prencipe and Tell (2001); Suikki,
Tromstedt, and Haapasalo (2006); Boh (2007); Prencipe, Brady, Marshall, and Tell (2005);
Kotnour and Landaeta (2002); Love et al. (2005); Liebovitz (2005); Hill (2003); Levin and
Rad (2007); Brady and Davies (2004); van Donk and Riezebos (2004); and Lesseure and
Brookes (2004). Project knowledge is managed at the global level, too-the preparation and
existence of global sources of knowledge are evidence of this. Vertical knowledge flow-
processes of transferring knowledge between different management levels-represents yet
another type of project knowledge management process. A relatively low number of
publications are devoted to these types of processes, and papers by Walta (1995); Garcia
(2005); Snider and Nissen (2003); Nissen and Snider (2002); Ahlemann, Teuteberg, and
Vogelsang (2009); Ramaprasad and Prakash (2003); and Gann and Salter (2000) may be
mentioned here.
Processes of all these types belong to one discipline: project knowledge management.
The development of project knowledge can encounter obstacles. None of the available
publications systematizes the field of project knowledge management in a way analogous to
systematizing other areas of project knowledge in the bodies of knowledge and standards. The
lack of a systematic review of the state of research is considered to be one of the main
obstacles to the development of project knowledge management (Hanisch et al., 2008).
Inconsistencies in its literature are to be noted; development of work on project knowledge
management is not carried out in any systematic way.
The existence of many perspectives, processes, and types of processes in a given area
makes it natural to aim to systematize that area in order to build a consistent whole. The vast
range of reasons for and goals of project knowledge management, combined with the existing
evidence for the influence of project knowledge management on project success (Cope et al.,
2006; Karlsen & Gottschalk, 2004; Kotnour, 2000; Landaeta, 2008; Liebovitz & Megbolugbe,
2003; Mohrman, Finegold, & Mohrman, 2003; Newell & Edelman, 2008), constitute the
rationale for systematizing the current output of project knowledge management research and
practice.
The definitions and general project management processes cited in the previous section
show that there is a dimension of knowledge that we will call scale, and there are two main
values in this dimension.
4.5. Knowledge management process in IT Project
Knowledge management's role in software engineering in software development,
different approaches have been proposed to reduce project costs, shorten schedules, and
increase quality. These approaches address factors such as process improvement, introducing
new technologies, and improving people’s performance (“people ware”). Knowledge
management addresses mainly people ware. Because software development is a human and
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knowledge-intensive creative activity, knowledge management acknowledges the importance
of individuals having access to the correct information and knowledge when they need to
complete a task or make a decision. KM does not ignore the value or need to address other
software development aspects, such as process and technology, nor does it seek to replace
them. Instead, it works toward software process improvement by explicitly and systematically
addressing the management of organizational knowledge, such as its acquisition, storage,
organization, evolution, and effective access. Other software process improvement
approaches, such as the Capability Maturity Model, might suggest that knowledge should be
managed but do not explicitly state what knowledge needs to be managed and how, when,
where, or by and for whom. Knowledge management ties together daily production activities,
improvement initiatives, and business goals, thereby supporting the establishment of a
learning organization. Organizations can view knowledge management as a risk prevention
and mitigation strategy, because it explicitly addresses risks that are too often ignored, such as
Loss of knowledge due to attrition Lack of knowledge and an overly long time to
acquire it due to steep learning curves People repeating mistakes and performing rework
because they forgot what they learned from previous projects Individuals who own key
knowledge becoming unavailable
Software engineering involves several knowledge types—technical, managerial,
domain, corporate, product, and project knowledge. Knowledge can be transferred through
formal training or through learning by doing. Formal training is often time con summing and
expensive, and if done externally does not cover local knowledge. Learning by doing can be
risky because people continue to make mistakes until they get it right. Knowledge
management does not replace organized training, but supports it. Documented knowledge can
provide the basis for internal training courses based on knowledge packaged as training
material. However, knowledge management mainly supports learning by doing. It provides
knowledge or pointers to people who have the knowledge, when and where it is needed.
Knowledge management does not come for free; it requires effort and resources. In
knowledge management systems that organizations have implemented so far (see the
Experience Factory sidebar and this issue’s feature articles), people other than developers
often perform knowledge management activities (such as a chief knowledge officer and his
staff, an Experience Factory group, or a software process improvement group). This supports
developers in their daily work instead of loading them with extra effort. Software
engineering’s core task is developing software. Documents (such as contracts, project plans,
and requirements and design specifications) are also produced during software development.
These documents capture knowledge that emerged from solving the project’s problems. Team
members can then reuse this knowledge for subsequent projects, for example, by analyzing
accepted solutions to different problems. If individuals own knowledge that is not explicitly
captured, the organization can leverage that knowledge only if it can identify and access these
individuals. Organizations wishing to improve a team’s software engineering capabilities can
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conduct the task of ensuring that knowledge gained during the project is not lost. They can
conduct this task during the project and shortly after they complete it. It addresses both
acquiring knowledge that was not documented as part of the core activities and analyzing
documents to create new knowledge. Included in this task are all forms of lessons learned and
postmortem analyses that identify what went right or wrong regarding both the software
product and process. These activities also include project data analyses, such as comparisons
of estimated and actual costs and effort, planned and actual calendar time, or analysis of
change history to reflect project events. These tasks collect and create knowledge about a
particular project; any organization can perform them. Although these activities’ results are
useful by themselves, they can also be the basis for further knowledge creation and learning.
They can be stored in repositories and experience bases. At a higher level, organizations and
industries must analyze multiple past projects to improve their software developing abilities.
This requires extensive knowledge based on many different software development
experiences, as well as insights into analysis and synthesis of new knowledge. Patterns,
heuristics, best practices, estimation models, and industry-wide standards and
recommendations are examples of outcomes from these knowledge-processing activities. We
group knowledge management activities that support software development into three
categories: by the purpose of their outputs (supporting core SE activities, project
improvement, or organizational improvement), the scope of their inputs (documents or data
from one or multiple projects), and the effort level required to process inputs to serve SE
needs. We use this classification to describe how both existing and new sums that the
activities of the Experience Factory and those of the Project Organization are integrated. That
is, the activities by which the Experience Factory extracts experience and then provides it to
projects are well integrated into the activities by which the Project Organization performs its
function. Figure A represents this interaction and exchange of experience. Making experience
available and usable is crucial but is not the essence of an EFO. “Experience” in an
Experience Factory is not only the raw information reported directly from projects. It also
includes the valuable results of the analysis and synthesis of that local experience, such as
“new” knowledge generated from experience. But the new knowledge is based on applying
previous experience on real projects, not on analysis in a vacuum. Thus, an EFO must
Package experience by analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating raw experience and
build models that represent abstractions of that experience
Maintain an experience base or repository of data, experience, models, and other forms
of knowledge and experience Support projects in identifying and using the appropriate
experiences for the situation
In IT Project, there are much knowledge, from very small size or small part to very big
size and complex part. We can divide them in to two groups of knowledge are micro–
knowledge and Macro–knowledge
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Micro-knowledge
Micro-knowledge is a piece of knowledge needed to perform one task (or its part) or to solve
a problem (or its part). A record of price list, the name of a person who may perform some
task, or the way of fixing software bugs of particular types are examples of such knowledge.
Macro-knowledge
Macro-knowledge is the total knowledge possessed by a given person. Training of a single
team member in order to supply him or her with the general knowledge needed to participate
in IT project execution is an example of a process performed on all the knowledge possessed
by one person. Completing a project team with sufficient knowledge to perform a project is an
example of a project knowledge management process performed at the project level (dealing
with all project team knowledge). Implementing a knowledge management system in project
an organization deals with all of the knowledge of the organization as a whole. There are four
sub values to project macro-knowledge:
- Individual macro-knowledge (knowledge possessed by one team member),
- Project team macro-knowledge (knowledge possessed by the project team),
- Organizational macro-knowledge (knowledge possessed by the organization),
- Global macro-knowledge (knowledge possessed by the whole global community of
project managers).
Micro-Knowledge Management process:
Identifying Needed Knowledge
Knowledge identification (Dickinson, 2000) is a process that targets the precise
specification of a needed micro-knowledge. For example, to perform the task of building the
foundation of software, you need knowledge about programming environment, coder
productivity, and the technology applying. The characteristics of micro-knowledge needed to
perform a task (solve a problem) determine the results of this process. The knowledge itself is
not the result of this process.
Knowledge Acquisition
Knowledge acquisition (Dickinson, 2000; King, Chung, & Haney, 2008; Rus &
Lindvall, 2002; Tiwana, 2000) means getting knowledge from outside the team performing
the task. According to a classification of ways of learning (Carbonell, Michalski, & Mitchell,
1983), the strategy of direct knowledge absorption or learning by instruction is applied in this
process. The knowledge may be acquired from the organization’s own knowledge repository,
may be transferred directly from people with the needed knowledge, or it may be acquired
according to the requirements of the particular task from an environment outside the
organization (e.g., from a global norm or standard). In order to use this knowledge, the micro-
knowledge must be subject to the process of internalization (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995); the
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subject willing to use the knowledge must also learn it, and then incorporate it into his or her
own structure of concepts. In everyday jargon, this process is called “understanding”
something.
Knowledge Creation
Knowledge acquired from outside the project team is often not sufficient to perform a
planned task or solve an emerging problem. The knowledge may be too general or it may be
sufficiently detailed but relates to a case similar, yet not identical, to the one at hand, to which
it should be applied. In such cases, new knowledge is created (Alavi & Leidner, 2001;
Davenport & Prusak, 1998; King et al., 2008; Rus & Lindvall, 2002; Snider & Nissen, 2003;
Ward & Aurum, 2004). Knowledge creation is a process of developing new micro-knowledge
or replacing the current content of knowledge with new content (Alavi & Leidner, 2001).
Knowledge creation is performed on the basis of existing knowledge possessed by a subject
and the knowledge acquired from outside sources for the needs of performing a given task.
There are some well-defined ways for knowledge creation.
Knowledge combination (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) is its grouping, new classification,
summarization, aggregation, or similar techniques. The preparation of periodical project
reports may serve as an example of knowledge combination. Replacing the content of micro-
knowledge with new content that allows for more efficient task execution or more effective
problem solving (or its categories) is called “creating knowledge by evolution” (King et al.,
2008; Snider & Nissen, 2003). An example of knowledge evolution is the creation of new
technologies applied to the production of analogous products (integrated circuits, aircrafts, or
agricultural products). Knowledge adoption (Ward & Aurum, 2004) corresponds to the
strategy of learning by analogy (Carbonell et al., 1983). Knowledge created when performing
a given task or solving a given problem may be, after carrying out the necessary
transformations, applied to the performance of an analogous task or the solution of an
analogous problem. For example, knowledge created while constructing a bridge may be used
in the construction of another bridge. The ways of reacting to risk that are applied in one
project may be applied, after some modification, in another project or to similar risks in the
same project.
Knowledge Application
Knowledge application is the main process of the micro-knowledge life cycle. This is
the process in which the knowledge is directly applied to task performance or problem
solving. Knowledge may be possessed and applied by individuals or by whole teams (Ajmal
& Koskinen, 2008; Chen, 2005) but in each event for the needs of the project as a whole.
Companies benefit not from the existence of knowledge but from its proper application (Alavi
& Leidner, 2001). Organizational routines, direct guidelines and instructions, and self-
organizing teams constitute the main mechanisms that guarantee the integration of knowledge
with work that is performed; in other words, its application (Grant, 1996). Knowledge
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application may take on different forms, such as its elaboration (when knowledge requires a
different interpretation than in the original situation), infusion (finding underlying issues), or
thoroughness (when different people or teams develop different understanding) (King et al.,
2008).
Knowledge is an immaterial resource, which, in contrast to material resources, may be
used for many tasks without it being lost. Passing on knowledge is a process that increases
organizational capabilities without reducing the possibilities for its application in the original
location. Occurrence of identical or analogous situations during the performance of identical
or analogous processes and projects is the rationale for passing on knowledge. There are two
main ways to pass on knowledge: transfer and sharing.
Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge transfer is an act of communication between two specific subjects: the
sender and the receiver. The roles of the sender and the receiver may be played by individuals
as well as teams of people (Alavi & Leidner, 2001). Socialization (i.e., knowledge transfer by
direct contact with people possessing knowledge), through observing people and watching
their behavior, constitutes a specific form of knowledge transfer (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995).
Implicit knowledge relates mainly to knowledge socialization and is applied without any
permanent medium (documentation). Codified knowledge (e.g., project reports) as well as no
codified knowledge may be transferred. For transfer of no codified knowledge, its prior
identification is not necessary, and a person with micro-knowledge may not be aware of
possessing it (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995).
Identification and Documentation of Created Knowledge
Each micro-knowledge element may be documented on external media (Bower &
Walker, 2007; Damm & Schindler, 2002; Kasvi et al., 2003; Prencipe & Tell, 2001). The first
step in documentation is identification of a micro-knowledge element—a person performing a
task or solving a problem must be conscious that a new piece of knowledge has been created
or that existing knowledge has been modified (Ward & Aurum, 2004). The important part of
the identification process is defining the name of the knowledge unit. Documented knowledge
may be subject to transfer, especially within the project team that produced the knowledge. In
order to document the piece of knowledge, one has to state that new knowledge has been
created. A person who is conscious of having created new knowledge may externalize this
knowledge (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). The process of externalization causes knowledge to
be shared with other people or teams. Externalization is the process of moving knowledge to a
medium independent of its original possessor. The medium may be more (knowledge
documentation) or less (oral statement) permanent. Knowledge identification and
documentation may be results of knowledge review (Boddie, 1987; Gulliver, 1987; Smith,
2001). Knowledge is documented after and not before its application because its application
serves as a kind of validation for it: successful application is a prerequisite for its application
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by people and teams other than its creator(s). Knowledge identification and documentation are
the first steps in project knowledge review.
Knowledge Sharing
Knowledge sharing (Alavi & Leidner, 2001; Davenport & Prusak, 1998; Dickinson,
2000; King et al., 2008; Rus & Lindvall, 2002; Snider & Nissen, 2003; Tiwana, 2000; Ward
& Aurum, 2004) along with knowledge transfer is another type of knowledge passing.
Documented knowledge may be used by the author of the documentation or may be submitted
to the organizational repository. Sharing knowledge from the person who created the
knowledge is not oriented toward a particular recipient; each worker in the organization (to
the extent his or her security system privileges permit) may have access to the repository.
Knowledge sharing consists of stating that some earlier documented knowledge may be useful
to the organization and placing it in a knowledge repository. Placing acquired and
documented experiences into an organizational repository may serve as an example of
knowledge sharing (King et al., 2008).
Externalization is necessary for knowledge sharing. Externalization is sometimes called
knowledge formalization (Nissen, Kamel, & Segupta, 2000), because knowledge outside of
the person who created it must have a well-defined form and structure. Formalization may be
called “codification” (Davenport & Prusak, 1998).
Formalized knowledge is organized (Rus & Lindvall, 2002; Snider & Nissen, 2003;
Ward & Aurum, 2004). Knowledge organization is the creation of a structure for knowledge
repositories that enables efficient access to micro-knowledge that is needed in particular
defined situations. Knowledge is properly classified within the process of organization; for
example, by assigning keywords or classificatory categories to them. Micro-knowledge
elements prepared in this way may finally be stored in the organizational repository for the
purpose of their later use.
External Knowledge Acquisition
Knowledge may be put into an organizational repository not only for the purpose of
solving a particular problem. Many organizations have organizational units or teams for the
purpose of acquiring knowledge from external sources, with the goal of increasing general
organizational capabilities or for the needs of specific projects. Knowledge for a project may
also be acquired from outside an organization on its own.
Knowledge management is not a purely managerial activity because it may be
performed by all project team members and not only by the management team. Each team
member, especially in a project that makes intensive use of knowledge, can and should take
part in the creation, storage, and distribution of knowledge (Damm & Schindler, 2002).
The above-presented processes make up the micro-knowledge management process—a
set of processes performed on micro-knowledge, ranging from identification of the need for
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its existence to its storing in the knowledge repository. The micro-cycle is performed at four
management levels: individual, project, organization, and global. For example, the
identification of needed micro-knowledge may take place at the project level, its creation at
the individual level, and it's sharing at the organization level and, in some cases, at the global
level. Processes of project micro-knowledge performed at particular organizational levels are
described in the paragraphs that follow.
Processes directly oriented toward increasing knowledge—its acquisition (including
transfer and acquisition from external sources) and creation—are called learning processes.
For the sake of simplicity, the processes for identifying needed knowledge and creating
it will be called knowledge-generation processes; processes of knowledge acquisition
(internal and external), transfer, identification, and documentation of created knowledge and
knowledge sharing will be called knowledge distribution processes. The last group of
processes consists of one process—knowledge application. IT Micro-knowledge
management process diagram: (By Gasik, Stanislaw 2011)
Figure 5: Micro-knowledge management process diagram
Macro-Knowledge management process:
Each scale of macro-knowledge has its own specific process, which is fully performed
inside a single subject possessing project knowledge. The temporal extent of each macro-
knowledge process covers the whole period of the particular subject’s existence: participation
of a team member in the work of a particular project, the period during which the project
exists, the period during which the organization exists, and—at the global level—the
existence of the profession of project management. The goal of the macro-knowledge life
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cycle is to extend a subject’s capabilities of participation as a whole in effective project
execution. Processes performed at particular levels do not have to provide results at the same
levels. For example, project reviews performed at the project level increase not only the
capabilities of the projects that perform these reviews, but also the capabilities of the whole
organization. The influence of the macro-knowledge life cycle may be indirect, which is the
case with the global macro-knowledge life cycle that has no direct influence on any particular
project but whose ultimate aim is to increase global project knowledge in order to execute
projects more effectively. (Follow PMI, the macro-knowledge management process as the
figure below)
Figure 6: macro-knowledge management process
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CHAPTER 3: CURRENT VIETNAM’S IT PROJECT
1. ICT Sector in the Context of Vietnam Economy
1.1. Operational Environment
Role of IT Industry and Policy Framework In the context of an increasingly global
world, the emergence of a knowledge-based economy challenges developing countries to
adjust. Comparative advantage of nations is now expressed as the ability to acquire, organize
and disseminate information through digital technologies and communication networks. For
developing countries, the challenge of a knowledge-based economy is not the scarcity of
knowledge, but inadequacies in diffusing and using it. To remain competitive this requires an
adaptable workforce that is receptive to innovation and change. Countries with widespread
access to telecommunication networks, the existence of an educated workforce and the
institutional capacity to promote knowledge creation and dissemination will thrive in the new
economy. Against this background, Vietnam has a significant disadvantage. In order to
integrate into the global economy, development of the information technology sector has been
given the highest priority by the Vietnamese
Government over the next decade, ICT plays following important roles: as an enabler,
as an economic sector and as part of the infrastructure of the national economy. Firstly, ICT is
considered as one of the most important driving forces for economic development and social
advancement. It is seen as one of the quickest ways to achieve national industrialization and
modernization goals, and provide an important contribution to national security (The
Directive 58/CT-TW). Secondly, as an economic sector, the envelopment of ICT makes an
important contribution to economic growth, helps other sectors develop, and enhances
technology’s capacity in industrialization and modernization nationally. Investment in ICT
infrastructure is made at all levels and brings long-term benefits to the entire society.
Furthermore, the ICT strategy states that “Based on ICT as a key element, Vietnam will
quickly transform its socio-economic structure to become an advanced country in terms of a
knowledge-based economy and information society, and greatly contribute to the success of
country’s industrialization and modernization process” (Decision 246/2005/QD-TTg).
Master plans, strategies, programs, plans of Vietnam ICT included:
- National master plan on development of the electronics industry of Viet Nam to 2010,
a vision toward 2020 (Prime Minister’s Decision No. 75/2007/QD-TTg dated May 28th,
2007).
- National strategy on development of information and communication technology of
Viet Nam to 2010 and orientations toward 2020 (Prime Minister’s Decision No.
246/2005/QD-TTg dated Oct 6th, 2005).
Projects in ICT in Vietnam:
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- National strategy on “Transforming Viet Nam into an advanced ICT country” (Prime
Minister’s Decision No. 1755/QD-TTg dated Sep 22nd, 2010).
- Project “Supporting enterprises implementing CMMi”, implementing agency:
Ministry of Information and Communications.
- Project “Organizing short courses for enterprises”, implementing agency: Ministry of
Communications; implementation duration: 2011-2013.
- Project on improvement of computer usage and public Internet access ability in Viet
Nam (BMGF). Implementing agency: Ministry of Information and Communications,
implementation duration: 2011-2016.
Given the important role of IT sector in country development, the Vietnamese
government has made significant efforts to support the sector. A strategy for IT development
has been introduced since 2000. The Directive 58 has been promulgated by government to
guide the establishment of an inter-ministerial IT Steering Committee in developing a
National IT Master Plan for the whole country. Contents of the plan address the need to
dramatically expand its national information infrastructure, strengthen the capacity of its
human resources base, and liberalize the legal and regulatory environment to encourage
foreign investment and growth of the IT sector. Series of government decisions have
subsequently been enacted to guide the implementation of Directive 58. These include:
- Resolution 36a/NQ-CP in e-Government, issued by the government on 14 October
2015, focuses on building and developing the Vietnamese e-Government.
- Plan under the Dicision of the Prime minister number 1819/QD-TTg, issued on 26
October 2015 approved the 2016-2020 ICT plans for Vietnam national Information
application in government agencies
Under the legal document, Major Directions/Solutions to achieve the vision and
objectives outlined above, the ICT Strategy identified nine major solutions:
- Improving awareness on the role and position of ICT in all economic sectors, security
and defense and enhancing ICT usage capability via communications, popularization of basic
ICT knowledge on the Internet and mass media.
- Enhancing the capability of ICT application and development by promulgating
investment policy and incentive policies to encourage and support enterprises to increase
investment in ICT application and production.
- Enhancing capability and effectiveness of state management on ICT at central and
local levels.
- Mobilizing capital to implement the strategy by seeking ODA and attracting FDI.
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- Developing human resources for ICT through compiling new curriculum on ICT
training and increasing use of ICT fields of study.
- Developing the R&D system by enhancing R&D capacity of ICT institutions. Policies
to hire ICT scientists and to provide special incentives to foreign companies to establish ICT
research centers in Vietnam.
- Completing the legal environment to support development and application of ICT.
- Enhancing local and international cooperation and linkage.
- Developing the ICT market by creating favorable conditions for all economic sectors
to participate in provision of telecom and Internet services. Amongst the solutions,
development of ICT human resources is crucial. Vietnam must ensure quality,
synchronization, and adopt a mechanism to rapidly increase the qualified labor force, and
enhancement of national ICT capability.
Software Industry in Focus
In the IT sector, the software industry has had special attention from government. The
government has set the goal of “developing the software industry as an economic sector with
high growth rate to spearhead the contribution towards modernization and sustained socio-
economic development and to enhance state management capacity and national security”
(Decree 07/2000/NQ-CP). Many policies to stimulate industry development have been
adopted. For instance, software businesses are exempted from corporate income tax for the
first 4 years after generating income subject to taxation, corporate income tax levied on
businesses operating under foreign investment law is 10% (the average rate among regional
countries is 12%), software products and services are not subject to value-added tax, and
software products are exempted from export tariffs. Policies to stimulate the software industry
development have led to the birth of a large number of new software companies.
1.2. Vietnam ICT Market
In the white book 2014, the IT market of Vietnam as below:
Table 2: Revenue of IT Industry in Vietnam
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Table 3: IT Import/Export data
Figure 7: Vietnam Hardware, electronics export by item in 2013
Value of Vietnam ICT market 1 has increased year by year. In 2006, it reached US$
1,015 million, (average of 22.6% over 6 years). This is three times the average growth rate of
the world, in which growth rate of hardware is 15.8% and that of software is 43.9%.
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And follow the white book 2014, the result as below:
Table 4: Employee market
IT production and business activities include three types of product manufacturing IT,
IT service provider and IT distribution business Occurs in 40 provinces and cities across the
country. For each field such as manufacturing IT products and providing services IT disperses
evenly across the length of the territory, mostly in the copper zone Equal or regional key
economic areas and less focused on mountainous areas.
Total revenue from product manufacturing and IT services in 2015, it reached
VND1,354,377 billion, of which export turnover accounted for 84.42% State budget reached
nearly 17 trillion. Turnover of business activities, distribution of products And IT services in
2015 also reached 71,525 billion. The country has over 40,000 businesses operating in the
field IT area with over 700,000 employees
Software Industry
The software industry in Vietnam did not begin to take shape until 1990's and followed
the country's economic reform starting in 1987, which resulted in a relatively strong demand
for IT and software products and services. Since then, the industry has grown continuously
with the establishment and rapid increase in numbers of software enterprises. However, the
overall value of this market is still relatively small compared with other regional countries and
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to the total Vietnam IT market. Sales of software products account for only 18% of the total
sales of the IT market. Few companies specialize in the manufacture of software products
because of low demand and the inability to produce software packages of high commercial
value.
The software industry was US$ 360 million in 2006, of which US$ 255 million was
derived from the domestic market (71.1%) and US$ 105 million from outsourcing (29.9%).
This was a 44% increase from 2005, brought about by software outsourcing increasing 50%,
domestic software increasing 41.6%. Assuming similar annual increase, it is expected that
revenue of software industry will reach US$ 500 million in 2007. Of the software industry
revenue, ICT training accounted for US$ 15 million and the Digital Content Industry US$ 65
million. In spite of the relatively small size of the industry, it has a very promising future.
Average annual productivity varies from US$ 7,500 to US$ 10,000 per software labor unit for
domestic software enterprises. Productivity, estimated at US$ 11,000 to US$ 15,000 is higher
in enterprises that provide outsourcing for foreign companies. A number of software parks
have been built and operated by municipal authorities and relevant government agencies and
they offer tax holidays and other incentives to software and related service firms. This is a
manifestation of the strong determination to promote software industry development. There
are now around 10 software parks operating at full capacity in terms of equipment and
facilities. The most successful one is the Quang Trung Software Park in HCMC, with 51
companies, of which 11 are foreign-owned companies and 15 others are joint ventures. There
are more than 1500 software engineers working in this software park.
Table 5: List of Software Parks in Vietnam:
Sq. Name of Software Parks in Vietnam
1 Quang Trung Software Park HCMC
2 Saigon Software Park HCMC
3 Ree E-Town HCMC
4 Unisoft HCMC
5 Software zone in Hoa-Lac Hi-Tech Park Hanoi
6 Danang Software Center Da Nang
7 Hanoi Software Center Hanoi
8 Cantho Software Center Can Tho
9 Hue Software Center Hue
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10 Haiphong Software Center Hai Phong
1.3. Human Resource Base
Currently the pool of IT university graduates is about 50,000 with about 2,500
graduating each year from Vietnam’s IT university faculties.
In 2007, the government target is 70,000 IT professionals. However, the skills of the
current pool of IT university graduates are not being fully utilized as only about half of them
are working directly in the IT industry.
In 2006, the government commenced implementation of the new law on education.
Under this law, the education system will be reformed and the market mechanism will be
applied in training ICT’s human resources. The establishment of ICT training institutions is
encouraged. The government will create favorable conditions for international universities to
teach ICT in Vietnam, encouraging local and overseas organizations and individuals to deliver
training and education for the ICT labor force.
Table 6: In 2015, the IT labors distributed as below (ICT index 2016 report):
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1.4. Characteristics of Vietnam's IT Companies
Follow the white book 2013, software enterprises about 6800, hardware enterprises
about 2500 and digital content enterprises about 4500. The grow speed as in table below:
Table 7: ICT grow speed
Software Companies
The Vietnam software industry is a new economic sector but it has achieved rapid
growth over recent years. Although there are a growing number of IT companies, most of
them are small. The number of registered software businesses is currently around 6800, of
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which about 3700 are considered real operating software companies. 82% of these companies
have less than 50 employees and only 18% of companies have more than 100 employees.
Most software companies are joint stock, limited or private companies (86%), while only 8%
are foreign companies (trangvangvietnam.com). On average, software companies have 20
personnel (VNPT statistic 2013). It is estimated that more than 441,000 IT engineers are
working in IT companies and other organizations, of which about 88,000 are working in
software companies
According to VietnamWorks analysis, in the past three years, the number of jobs in the
Information Technology - Software sector has increased by an average of 47% per year.
However, the number of people in this industry only increased at an average of 8%. If the gap
between demand and supply growth continues in the coming years, Vietnam will have an
increasingly shortage of human resources to fill leader of the market.
Specifically, from now until 2020, if we continue to grow at 8%, we will have a
shortfall of around 78,000 IT employees per year, and by 2020 there will be more than
500,000 IT employees, accounting for over 78% However, in order to achieve a job seeker
ratio of 17 job candidates per job (the 2013 rate), we need about 1.2 million jobseekers. By
keeping up with the current level of growth, Vietnam will lack 1 million IT employees by the
end of this year, a huge number of which will require a broadened human development policy.
Immediately.
Overview of the current IT industry in Vietnam
VietnamWorks also said that the number of companies recruited in the IT industry has
increased 69% over 2012. In particular, the number of software companies has increased
124% in just four years. That explains why the number of IT jobs is always increasing, but the
focus is on software.
In addition to its rapid growth, Vietnam's Information Technology market is well known
for its outsourcing services. According to ranking of consulting company Tholons, Ho Chi
Minh City and Hanoi are in the top 20 cities have the best outsourcing services.
In terms of recruiting requirements, TechLooper's data, a career analysis website under
VietnamWorks, shows that .NET, C / C ++, Java, PHP and Web skills are the fastest growing
recruitment needs in which Web and Java are the top two skills being sought now.
Hardware Companies
Currently, there are about 2480 hardware and electronic companies operating in
Vietnam. About more than 20 companies are assembling Vietnamese-brand computers, which
account for about 25 - 30 percent of the market. Many Vietnamese-trademark computers such
as CMC, SingPC, Mekong Green, VINACom, Robo, Thanh giong, etc., have been assembled
and widely distributed on the market. About two million computers have been installed in the
country, and computer sales are growing by about 20 percent per annum. However, most
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Vietnamese computer assembly companies do not have an industrial assembly line and work
mostly manually, leading to low productivity and quality. There are 2480 companies
operating in electronic equipment employing about 284,000 employees. However, the
majority of them are manufacturing under license from world-leading electronic corporations.
Some companies have started to produce goods with their own trademark, but they are all
simple ones with little added value. Domestic telecommunication equipment factories have
step-by-step equipped themselves with state-of-the-art assembly lines to produce high-quality
import substitute products. Those factories, although small, have with modern technology,
been able to meet around 30% of domestic demand and export their products. The majority of
products include small and medium-capacity electronic switchboards, end-use equipment,
copper-fiber cables of different types, optic-fiber cables and supplementary parts.
2. Analysis of Vietnam's Information Technology Industry
2.1 Macro-environment of IT Industry: PEST Analysis
The renovation of Vietnam since the year 1986 has resulted in a simultaneous
improvement in many areas and created a favorable environment for the development of all
industries, especially the IT industry. The political environment in Vietnam is stable and
secure. This creates confidence and trust among foreign investors and domestic companies
operating in the industry. Legal framework is in favor of IT industry. A number of policies
and legal documents favoring IT industry development have been produced. These include
encouragement in areas such as human resource development, telecommunication
infrastructure, IT investment and intellectual property rights protection. Tax-free policies for
software companies have also been implemented. However, implementation of these policies
through sub-legal documents remains problematic. At present, the policies are still slowly
disseminated and do not align well with reality. They are non-synchronous and are
inconsistent with each other, resulting in the restriction of the software industry development.
Table 8: PEST Analysis of Vietnam’s IT Industry
Social Technological
- Demographics: young population, eager to
integrate with global economic community
- Educational opportunity: Poor, institutions
not keeping pace with levels of demand nor type
of training demanded at tertiary levels
- Entrepreneurial spirit: High, profitable
sectors see many new entrants
- Educational aptitude: High literacy
- Recent technological developments:
Limited installed technology base
- Rate of technological diffusion: Poor
mechanisms for diffusing technology as
well as information
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Political Economic
- Political stability - highly stable
- Legal framework for contract enforcement -
under development
- Intellectual property protection - weakest in the
world
- Taxation - tax incentives favorable for
software companies
- Wage legislation - minimum wage far below the
threshold of sector standards
- Political support of the industry – emerging as a
favored sector
- Economic system - pursuing
integration with global system,
improving
- Government intervention in the free market -
moving away from central planning, improving
- Exchange rate stability - stable
- Efficiency of financial markets - fledgling stock
market
- Infrastructure quality - poor and bandwidth
expensive, but improving
- Skill level of workforce – technically strong,
managerially weak
- Labor costs - low
- Economic growth rate - high
- Unemployment rate and underemployment rate -
high
The recent entry into the WTO brings significant opportunities and big challenges for
the development of the industry. IT companies have to operate in more competitive
environment. The high GDP growth rate (8% per annum), low labor cost and technically
strong labor force create many advantages for IT industry development.
2.2 SWOT Analysis of Vietnam's IT Companies
IT industry development plays a strategic role in accelerating Vietnam’s transition to a
knowledge society and integration into the global economy. Despite the rapid growth in
recent years, Vietnam’s IT industry is still quite young and inexperienced. Although IT
companies have received special attention and support from the government, they have
weaknesses related to technology, R&D capacity, human resources and management.
Increasing competition in both local and international markets will require companies to raise
their competitiveness by enhancing human resource capacity, creating and utilizing new
knowledge more efficiently and effectively. Building organizational capabilities to facilitate a
process of knowledge transfer inside an organization will contribute to increased performance
and competitiveness of firms. Table 3.8 points out strengths, weaknesses of the software
companies and also opportunities and threats that they have to face.
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Table 9: SWOT Analysis of Vietnam’s IT Companies
Opportunities
Threats
- Potentially big market with the population of
more than 80 million, particularly the ICT content
and services markets which have yet to be
developed.
- The need for Vietnamese language in these
markets presents domestic IT companies with a
major advantage over foreign competitors.
- Telecommunication is one of the fastest
growing sectors in Vietnam and the South-
East Asia region in the recent year.
Telecommunications networks are also
developing rapidly.
- Big potential market for software companies
due to an increase and a diversification in the use
of IT in various areas, from socio-economic
sectors, government administrations and
businesses to the daily activities of many urban
people.
- The cost for Telecommunications and Internet
Services has dropped in the last few years and it
is now about the same as the average level in the
region.
- Government has a great support for the industry
development.
- Intellectual property rights protection and
enforcement is weak. Vietnamese software
enterprises have a great deal of difficulties
in entering the international market.
- The infrastructure remains weak, thus limiting
the growth of information provision on the
Internet.
- Widespread infringements of software
copyrights restrain the growth of software
companies.
- The general operating environment is not
conducive to sector growth. Vietnam pays
exceptionally high price for bandwidth services,
averaging from 15-100 times prices found
elsewhere, and suffers from a lack of private
venture capital funding sources and market
research into potential target opportunities.
- The enforcement of legal policy remains weak.
Strengths Weaknesses
- Software companies have dynamic and flexible
operations.
- Adequate and supportive infrastructures
(software parks) and preferential regimes for
software companies’ operations.
- Available pool of good workers at low cost for
- Software companies lack human resource, both
in quantity and quality (insufficient management
capacity, and experience).
- Lack of capital investing in basic scientific and
technological research, R& D capacity is limited.
- Most of the software companies are mainly
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Strengths Weaknesses
the hardware industry.
sharing of information intra- and inter companies.
small sized and have limited resources.
- Companies do not have a long-term strategy.
- Software products are not so diversified.
- Weak marketing capability and lack of
information about markets and customers.
- Lack of policies for the exploration and
3. Survey and analysis knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
3.1. The events occurred
I have a survey of 50 IT companies in Vietnam, received 48 IT project reports. The
result of analysis and experts revealed highlighted the 7 events were occurred to the Projects,
as below:
- Business Needs Changed: 46%
There are many conditions and situations where a business legitimately changes its
requirements after starting a project. If the project no longer provides meaningful value, then
it's best to stop throwing good money after bad.
On the other hand, some organizations deliberately obscure a flawed project
requirements process by claiming business needs evolved. Obviously, that's unhealthy and a
true sign of failure.
- Key experienced staffs moved to other company: 42%
In this situation, the person who is assigned to perform part of the project, they moved
to other company while did not finish the work yet. When a part of work is done and the
major risk occurs, the heir of the task does not grasp the incomplete parts of the former
personnel, so it takes a lot of work to understand and continue work to perfect the product for
the inheritor. Hence, it is spent a lot of time and resources to continue. Sometimes, the
inheritor person have to start over again. This leads to the risk of prolonging project execution
time, resulting in many bugs when developing large and complex software.
- Did Not Deliver as Promised: 33%
Due to many reasons of leading to the delivery of products not in accordance with the
plan, leading to the stagnation of other IT projects. The delivery is not on schedule usually
due to budget disagreement schedule disbursement according to schedule, production of
products does not ensure progress, and there are some errors occurred with transportation
during production.
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- Project Was No Longer a Priority: 31%
If the organization shifted direction without good reason, thus making the project
superfluous, then flawed strategic planning was the culprit. However, if business requirements
changed for a good reason, as suggested in point one, there's not necessarily a problem.
In general, and this is an obvious point, cancelling projects without a darn good reason
is a definite sign of failure.
- Project Exceeded the Budget: 29%
On the surface, over-budget projects are the basic metric for failure. I'm actually
surprised this number isn't higher, because unanticipated cost is always such a clear red flag.
At the same time, some projects run over-budget due to intelligent scope increases that
provide additional value. For example, while automating two departments, the project team
realizes it can add a third department for only marginal increases in cost. In such cases, going
forward is probably the right decision despite the higher spend.
Although tempting to use budget performance as simple metric of success or failure,
that approach can be overly simplistic and ignore important nuances related to business value.
Nonetheless, anytime a project goes over-budget the team must offer a detailed explanation.
- Project Did Not Support the Business Strategy: 19%
This classic indicator of failure often suggests a project rooted in poor requirements
analysis. However, as with previous points, it's also possible changing business needs made
the original project goals obsolete.
The survey is most interesting to highlight significant issues related to project failure.
However, some of the questions are too ambiguous to provide straightforward conclusions. In
general, understanding whether a project is successful requires examining the business
environment and context.
- Others: 6%
From the above results, we can see that the impact of human resources on implementing
IT projects is so great, the lack of knowledge management and sharing during IT project
implementation in Vietnam is one of the the big reason for the failure of the IT project.
Table 10: Table of IT Project problem occurred in 48 IT project data collected in Vietnam:
Sq.
reasons
Total
occurs percent
1 Business Needs Changed 22 46%
2 Key experienced staffs moved to other company 20 42%
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Sq.
reasons
Total
occurs percent
3 Did Not Deliver as Promised 16 33%
4 Project Was No Longer a Priority 15 31%
5 Project Exceeded the Budget 14 29%
6 Project Did Not Support the Business Strategy 9 19%
7 Others 3 6%
3.2. Knowledge management situation in IT projects in Vietnam
According to my survey of 48 IT projects deployed in 2015 and 2016 in Vietnam, most
IT projects have not yet implemented knowledge management. Few projects have been
implemented, however, only in specific cases, no program or important task to maintain and
develop company. There are 35 Project did not have implement of knowledge management,
10 Project had implemented of knowledge management by sharing experience in the
company’s forum, 03 Project had implemented of knowledge management by software, in
there, two Projects had knowledge management by the company owned software to store and
sharing knowledge by questions and answers, only one project applied the full knowledge
management process. The analytics as below:
Figure 8: Knowledge management applying analytic
4. Chapter conclusions
The collected data and information are mentioned in this chapter says that it is necessary
to develop knowledge management for IT projects in Vietnam. The analysis and statistics on
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Vietnam's ICT market show great potential, the rapid development of the ICT market, the
need for professionalism in the information technology enterprises, to avoid rejection in
accordance with the market competition rules. On the other hand, there is a need to have an
effective means of protecting corporate assets, a very large form of property that businesses
have long forgotten, especially information technology enterprises, that are knowledge assets.
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CHAPTER 4: CASESTUDY AND ANALYSIS
1. Cases study
1.1. The Context and Relevance of Cases Study
The cases study was conducted in 2006. The case study aimed at exploring how the
process of knowledge transfer occurred in an IT company in Vietnam. Then, the impact of
knowledge transfer process on company performance was examined. The Vietnamese
software company studied was FPT Software Solutions, a subsidiary company of FPT
Corporation. The case study contributed to this research in two different ways. First, it serves
as an illustration of the theoretical framework of intra-organizational knowledge transfer.
1.2. Limitation of the Cases Study
Some limitations of this case study need to be taken into account when interpreting the
results: (i) there was little opportunity to crosscheck the coding of collected data with the
company's managers. However, there is a high degree of confidence that the coding is
acceptable since the researcher has visited the company for a month, and has participated in
some important meetings; (ii) although access to the company’s documents was permitted,
only few types of documents were available. The data was collected mainly through
observations and interviews, therefore implying some subjectivity when expressing personal
viewpoints. Despite these limitations, this case study provides important insights about the
knowledge transfer process inside an IT company in a transition economy. In the next section,
the background information of the company is provided and the results are examined to
investigate how well the theoretical model fits in that particular context.
1.3. Some Cases Study abstraction and review
1.3.1. The NASA Software Engineering Laboratory
The first implementation of an Experience Factory was at the NASA Software
Engineering Laboratory, which is reported in [54]. The Experience Factory is used as
described in [19].
Experience in forms of cost data, process data as project methodology information and
information on tools and technology used, as well as product data such as change and error
information and results on static analysis on delivered code was collected, and used to
develop predictive models and to refine the software processes that is used.
The results of this activity is reported as defect rates that went dramatically down (75%
from 1987-91, and 37% from 1991-95); the cost of producing software went down by 55%
from 1987-91 and 42% from 1991-95. Reuse was improved by 300% from 1987-91 and 8%
from 1991-95. Finally, functionality was increased five-fold from 1976-92.
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The organisation produces software for NASA only. Thus, it is difficult to compare this
organisation with normal, more competitive companies. The article reports lessons learned
through 15 years of operation.
1.3.2 Daimler Chrysler
Daimler Chrysler has implemented three experience factories in different environments
within a two-year period, in co-operation with the University of Ulm, Germany [55]. The
environments were: 1) A department responsible for developing software for the aerospace
area with real-time constraints. 2) A department which develops small embedded systems for
cars, with special focus on keeping software portable across different micro controllers, and
making sure that planned functionality was actually implemented. 3) An administrative
software unit that manages internal business processes such as car sales. This unit operates
only on requirements, and the software production itself is outsourced.
Other work on experience reuse from Daimler Chrysler can be found in [56, 57]. Three
case studies on experience transfer in the company can be found in [58].
The study from Daimler Chrysler takes the form of a “lessons learned” report, and
reports the following findings from the three environments (amongst others) [27]:
There are many sources of reusable experience, and measurement is just one of them.
There were difficulties in finding how “packaged” users wanted the experience to be.
Handling qualitative data was a bottleneck.
Building predictive models from quantitative data was difficult when context
information was missing.
We also find a discussion on benefits and problems of introducing an Experience
Factory in a top-down and bottom-up manner.
1.3.3 Telenor Telecom Software
In an effort to reuse software development experience, Telenor Telecom Software, a
company with 400 software developers in five geographical locations, decided to improve the
estimation of software development effort, as well as risk management [59]. To achieve this,
they set up:
An experience reuse process, with new and modified role descriptions.
An experience database tool, available on the Intranet.
Resources allocated for experience reuse and for experience database administration.
The experience database was available as an “expert system” which would ask you
questions on the nature of a new project, and recommend an estimation model, based on data
from earlier projects in the company. It would also give you information on company experts
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on estimation. This database was linked to a risk management module, which included risk
factors found from interviewing experienced project managers. This module consisted of a set
of “best practise” processes, a tool to identify, assess and store risk factors, and a tool to
visualise risk exposure over time. In addition to this, new roles for “experience database
administrators” were set up – responsible for technical and editorial contents, as well as
several roles for “process analysts”, responsible for analysing information from processes
such as the estimation process, project management process and the testing process.
Although the authors of the article acknowledge that the study was made too early after
the initiative was introduced too draw firm conclusions, and that it was difficult to isolate the
impact of their own work from other improvement initiatives in the company, they find
several indications of improvement:
The estimation accuracy improved, and estimation models were more widespread in
use.
The focus on experience based risk management increased in the projects.
The organisation accepted the need to collect and share experience.
The study takes the form of a lessons learned report.
1.3.4 Ericsson Software Technology
Ericsson Software Technology in Sweden have experimented with transfer of
experience on a site that develops a wide range of software applications, having around 1600
employees who work in business units of 20 to 30 people. They develop software for
telephone switches, base stations and mobile phone management systems. The company has
formal communication channels such as meetings, e-mail and written reports, but wanted to
establish a corporate culture that facilitate more oral communication of experience [60]. Two
organisational roles were invented: “Experience brokers” keep track of what other people in
the company know, and match people who can have a benefit from talking to each other.
“Experience communicators” help other people solve problems, by teaching them how to
solve the problems on their own. The study reports that employees are more motivated when
they know that there is a system for transferring experience that works.
The scientific method used in this article is a “lesson learned” report.
1.3.5 An Australian Telecom Company
Another paper [61] reports on the introduction of an Experience Factory in an
Australian telecommunications company. The study was done by the company in co-
operation with the Center for Advanced Empirical Software Research at the University of
New South Wales, Australia. The goal was to improve the speed and quality of software
development, and to enhance experience transfer of process knowledge between projects. This
was sought to be done by collecting information that was already documented in the
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company, and to make it available and searchable, a kind of a “bottom up” way to start a
knowledge management program. The article then reports the usage of this experience base
over time, and classifies the searches that were made. A survey amongst the users was
conducted, and the “acceptance and judgment of the product was good”. The experience
database is also reported to break down barriers between project environments, but this is not
supported by quantitative data. Although no information is given on the research method
used, it seems that the researchers involved defined the metrics to collect and we can then say
that this is a case study. In a later paper, this introduction is described as a “failure” [61].
Although an informal survey amongst users said the “acceptance and judgment of the product
(possibility to search an experience base) was good”, the project was abandoned by
management. Some reasons for this is discussed in the paper: 1) The researchers felt that there
was a lack of ongoing management support for this initiative. 2) The goals and payback-
criteria for the project were not clearly defined. 3) The researchers think that a more formal
approach should have been used to construct an experience-repository, because the users were
physically co-located, and the number of people relatively small. The scientific method here is
assertion.
1.4. Analysis the Tan Dan IT Project case study
1.4.1. Company overview:
Man is the decisive factor:
In the era of intellectual economy, for the New Testament the human factor plays a
decisive role and their culture makes that element of quality. Linking and multiplying the
superlative values of each member's individuality is their culture.
Qualified and experienced staffs are the company's most valuable assets. Over 95% of
the staffs of the company have graduated from universities in IT and other disciplines,
including 4 PhDs, 3 Masters, 9 Economics, 50 Bachelors, IT technician. The staff of the
company always strives, self training and training to improve professional qualifications to
meet the increasing needs of customers.
By considering human resources as the most valuable resource, the most important
source of motivation for value creation and sustainable development of their selves. Tan Dan
always creates conditions for its members to have the opportunity to study and train at home
and abroad.
Professional production organization
With the production process of ISO 9001 - 2008 standards and customer and customer
orientation, Tan Dan always emphasizes the quality of satisfying customers' demands,
business commitments, ahead of time. Market and harmonious combination of benefits.
Continuous improvement, in each person, each department to increase competitiveness and
better customer satisfaction.
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Company structure:
Figure 9: Tan Dan company structure
Main activities of Tan Dan Company:
Consulting solutions for IT application projects to support the management and
operation management due to practical needs set in many fields.
Analysis and design of information systems for computerization at the request of units
and organizations.
To build a software system to support management and operational support in order to
improve the management and service of units, organizations and enterprises; Building
specialized software, corporate websites, ...
Deploying and training software for units, organizations and enterprises.
Provided packaged software packages from Microsoft, Symantec, IBM ...
Provides service packages for networking, data integration, communication solutions,
and IT training packages.
The main products of Tan Dan Informatics Joint Stock Company are contributing
significantly to the application of information technology in the field of state administrative
management, including:
Document Management System and Work Profile
Web portal
Public administrative information system (serving public administrative services to
departments, districts, districts)
Database of legal documents
Document Management System
Board of
chairman
Managing
Director
Board of
supervisors
Deputy Managing
Director
Accountance Dept. Salses Dept. Projects and System
Analysis Dept.
Software Dept. Center for Software
Development Dept.
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Complaints Management System complaints complaints
Emulation Management System Reward
Information system for operational management
Civic Management Information System
Socio-economic information system
And many other IT products, etc.
Contact of Tan Dan company:
Address: Floor 3, Building B, No. 60 Thinh Hao 1 - Ton Duc Thang Street - Dong Da -
Hanoi
Phone: (+84) (4) 3847.1894 - (+84) (4) 3823.0041 - Fax: (+84) (4) 3847.1895
Hotline: 0904.358.501 - 0912.522.861 - 0985.915.920
Email: [email protected]
1.4.2. OneGate project knowledge management casestudy
Problem promoted implementation the KM system decision in Tan Dan company
When implementing projects, Tan Dan always encountered key programmers leave to
other competitors situations. This has caused so much hardship and harm to the company.
New programmers have many difficulties to taking over the jobs that the previous ones
leaved. Sometimes they can not continue to do those works, but they must have to start over
again.
For new employees, meeting with veteran employees is difficult, sometimes the
working environment is very tense with new employees and causing inconvenience to former
employees.
To solve this problem, the company's manager has researched and decided to implement
the knowledge management system at the company. The work carried out consists of the
following steps:
1. Define the principles of corporate knowledge management: in this step, identify the
types of knowledge that needs to be managed, the mode of sharing and storing knowledge,
and the exchange of knowledge.
2. Select the knowledge management model: This step selects a suitable knowledge
management model for the company
3. Build a collaborative software system for storing and managing knowledge
4. Apply knowledge management system to a specific project.
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After completing the steps of deploying the knowledge management system, OneGate
software project for Bac Kan People's Committee Office was selected.
OneGate project overview
One of the studied projects is called OneGate project (hereafter referred to as the OG
project). It lasted about a year and a half and was finalized in the summer of 2016. It was a
big project involving around 30 people that was divided into several sub-teams, each team
responsible for one area of development. The task was to develop a standard solution for
managing purchasing certification. Instead of developing the software for the Bac Kan
provincial government offices, the product was developed in close collaboration with the final
customer, an uncommon matter for the development projects in Tan Dan. The sub-team that
has been the focus for this project belonged to the product group 'Projects' and involved seven
members. Six of them were software developers and one of them was a Business System
Analyst (BSA), where two of the software developers and the BSA were interviewed. The
team members worked as a virtual team and were distributed on two different sites; one in
company and other on customer site. Four of the software developers were located in
Compnany, one was located in Jonkoping and one was located in Bac Kan along with the
BSA. The OG project was one of the first projects in which they had worked according to the
agile method instead of the traditional water fall methodology that they applied up until a few
years ago.
The team dynamic
In this project the majority of the team members had not been working together
previously; they had no established team procedures and the people working on different sites
had not met in person before this project. No official kick-off was held and the respondents
admit that it was rather difficult to know each other's competence area on a more detailed
level from the beginning. During the first session they found out in which product group
people had worked in, and what areas they had worked with in Tan Dan previously. The focus
of the session was on making the team members understand what was to be worked with
during the project and therefore no specific activities for team-building were present. As the
interviews progress the team members state that they came to know each other very well and
several of the employees believe that the consistency of the team was a big reason for that.
Two of the team members from different sites had actually worked together previously in
another project during four to five months; one software developer from Compnay and the
BSA from Bac Kan province. The software developer from Tan Dan described that the
relationship with the other team members were not as developed from the beginning. The
person expressed how the previous project resulted in lot of interaction and communication
with the BSA from Bac Kan in person as well as from a distance. In that way he or she was
well aware of the competence areas of that team member and felt very confident in contacting
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the BSA during this project. The software developer express how easy it was for them to
collaborate although they were located on remote sites.
The whole team communicated and interacted with each other consistently throughout
the project. The daily standup meetings did not occur every day, but it was collectively
decided that they were going to take place at least three times per week. During these
meetings all members were present through a communication tool called Lync. The reason for
not having these meetings everyday was expressed from several parties to be because of the
need for more meetings in the beginning when more new and unfamiliar problems were to be
dealt with. One software developer explains that the need for the meetings were higher in the
beginning of the iterations but decreased as no new things occur in the meetings with time.
The person states that one was already aware of what the other team members were working
with and that one meeting every day was not feel necessary.
Depending on the task at hand, the team members on remote sites spoke several times
per day outside of the daily standup meetings. One of the software developers from Bac Kan
mentioned that when he was working on the same type of solution as a person on Tan Dan
they were frequently interacting with each other. The teamwork in this group became very
obvious early on in the interviews. Although the team members were not collocated, the close
collaboration between them appeared to be necessary and successful in this project. One of
the software developers from Bac Kan shares how the communication outside of the
boundaries of the daily standup meetings became very frequent with team members on remote
sites:
"I worked with certification for the purchase requisition and another team member
worked with corresponding role permission for purchase order...and even if the codes are not
exactly the same there are some things that are closely related and the solution would look
pretty much the same [...] that puts greater demands of communicating with each other
constantly, sometimes several times per day."
knowledge Management:
The search and transfer of knowledge
Throughout the project, the daily standup meetings served as a big enabler in the search
of knowledge. The team members expressed that the meetings gave them a good insight into
what everyone was doing since all of them had to express what they had done, what they
planned on doing, and what potential problems was in the way of succeeding. With time, the
team became more aware of each other's knowledge areas and became surer of who to turn to
in the search for the right knowledge. The meetings also served as a forum for the team where
they could take advantage of each other's personal networks if the knowledge that was
necessary to solve a problem was outside of the team boundaries. It was a common matter to
present a problem for the team that quickly could share either the right competence to solve
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the problem, or share their insights in where the knowledge could be found outside of the
team.
While the daily standup meetings were conducted frequently, the retrospectives seemed
to be a bit of a struggle in the OG team. When the team was newly formed and the rules were
not very established it was difficult for the team to bring up the discussion of how they could
improve their procedures. In the very beginning of the project the sessions were not even
conducted, but as time passed they had more established routines. One of the software
developers explained how the retrospectives with that, became a lot easier to carry through.
After that, they conducted the sessions at the end of every iteration.
The team prepared for the retrospective sessions by reflecting beforehand on what had
worked well, what had gone bad, and areas of improvements during the iteration. No specific
material was used, but the discussions were rather open. The sessions resulted in improvement
points and a physical protocol. The improvement points did not end up as an issue to be dealt
with in the backlog and usually no team member was formally in charge for implementing
them. The whole team was collectively responsible for it, but most of the times the person that
initially came up with one improvement point was the person that realized it. The informality
of the retrospectives was noticeable by all team members and one of them admitted that they
team did not always follow up the improvement points the next iteration. The same
respondent thought that it might have been advantageous to do this, in order to evaluate if
they actually had improved between iterations. Although the team conducted the
retrospectives quite frequently, the decreased motivation for these sessions is noticeable. The
BSA expressed that the sessions in the end were perceived as rather timely and almost
interfering with the project:
"They dragged things out these meetings... we tried to reduce the time later on to make
them last shorter like the daily standup meetings."
When it was time for the final retrospective of the project, all sub-teams in the project
gathered. The team states that it was the project manager that encouraged, coordinated and
organized the session. The project manager was present during it but acted as an observer
more than a member of the discussions. During the session all teams shared with each other
what they had learned and what their procedures had looked like but the team members do not
seem to remember the details of the session. The lessons learned from the different teams in
the OG project were shared among the teams that were involved in the project but the
respondents believe that they were not distributed to people that were not present during the
discussion
Working in a virtual team
To manage the knowledge, the manager of Tan Dan company decided to use software
tool to make virtual team, all talks, discussions, references and others trying of all team
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members are kept in the database of software tool. They used their own collaboration portal to
make their virtual team from start date to the finish date of the project.
The fact that the OG team was a virtual one was noticeable during the interviews with
all members. They all state that it added some difficulties to work around throughout the
project.
The general opinion regarding working in a virtual team agrees with the previous
statement, but two of the team members express that previously experienced issues in virtual
teams was avoided rather well by this team. They describe how the team was very well
coordinated. In the end the time difference came to work as an advantage when the new
developed functionality was to be tested. The BSA tested the solution when the people in Tan
Dan Company were unavailable and when the BSA finished for the day an email was sent to
one of the software developers in Tan Dan Company that would fix the bugs when he or she
began the work day. A lot of times the problems were solved when the BSA arrived to the
office the next day.
An important event in the project was when all the team members from Bac Kan
travelled to the site of Tan Dan Company and the whole team met face-to-face. For the two
persons that had already met before the meeting was not a serious event that changed the
continuous collaboration, but for the rest of the team members that had not met this made a
visible impact. It became a lot easier for the team members on remote sites to contact each
other and ask for help and two of the members on different sites both mention that they
contacted each other more frequently after this visit. One software developer on a site in Bac
Kan expresses his thoughts about the effect of this meeting:
"For some reason...when you have met a person, face-to-face, it is like some kind of
connection is created in a way. It is not the same threshold to contact the person because we
have met each other before [...] even if you only receive a hand shake, and you have seen this
person and you know what it looks like and how it speaks. It can’t is more worth than you
actually might think. I was quite surprised by the fact that after my visit to Tan Dan Company
when I had met the persons there it became easier both for me and for them to make contact
with each other."
2. Casestudy Analysis
Previous projects, Tan Dan Company always encountered key personnel to leave the
company during the development of software products when the project is under way. This
has caused a great deal of damage to the company and reduced the credibility of the company
as the IT projects implemented by the company failed to meet the schedule. Knowledge
management in the implementation of IT projects which the company dealing are interested
and implemented by the company's directors. After implementing the One gate project in Bac
Kan province, the change of some programmers did not affect the completion of the project.
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 67
The new staff quickly learned the knowledge from the knowledge management system and
continued the work that the former person was working in progress.
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 68
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS
The goal of the current research is two fold. Firstly, it is aimed at identifying the need to
deploy knowledge management for IT projects in Vietnam. Secondly, it investigates how a
particular Vietnamese IT company practices its knowledge Management process and builds
its knowledge sharing culture. To achieve the goal stated above, the following process was
adopted. First, the literature related to knowledge management process was reviewed. With
that background, gaps were identified in the research, and a model was developed to integrate
IT project factors, three stages of knowledge management process and IT company
performance.
From the above chapters, it shows that the IT Project Knowledge Management (PKM)
is a management of knowledge in project situations and thus, the link between the principles
of KM and PM (Frey et.al, 2009). KM and PM components are very similar. PM components
include system, people and tools and KM components include people, technology and
organisational factors (Awad and Ghaziri, 2004; Lewis, 2005). As components are analogous
this allows for components from both disciplines to be placed on top of each other, so they
can merge and work in conjunction with each other.
Project Knowledge Management Strategies:
There are two strategies can by adapted by organizations to manage IT project
knowledge (Fong, 2005). Both strategies are needed for fully comprehensible project work.
Organizations can enable capture and sharing of accumulated knowledge within the projects
and organization by using codification or personalization strategies.
1. Personalization strategy
Where personalization strategy is used, the knowledge sharing is attached to the person
who developed the knowledge, and the experience is shared through direct interaction.
Personalization as a knowledge sharing mechanism has the inherent flexibility of transmitting
tacit knowledge, and allowing for discussions and sharing interpretations that may lead to the
development of new knowledge (Prencipe and Tell, 2001).
Personalization strategy defined by: - The knowledge that is tied to persons who
developed it and is shared by personal interaction, such as dialogue, workshops or meetings; -
‘Soft’ items - stories, recollections of incidents, details about decision processes,
capitalization of lessons and experiences from given projects; - A well-defined set of meta-
knowledge which is used to determine how and when the knowledge or content should be
applied. By using personalization strategy the knowledge is shared through: • Integrating
processes between Individuals and Groups: - Meetings amongst communities of individuals
interested in a particular topic area - Meetings amongst high level staff - Word of mouth -
sharing information through approaching individuals with deep institutional knowledge -
Informal one-on-one discussions - Building a transitive memory, where individuals specialize
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 69
in different areas, and are referred to for specific expertise - Mentoring - Broadcast email -
One senior person coordinating all staffing needs - Friendship network - Meetings on
performance assessment - Project briefings and project presentations • Processes
institutionalised in Routines and Structure: - Yellow pages of expertise - Having a common
project director shared across projects - Project debriefs - Cross-staffing across projects -
Project reviews, after-action review, etc.
Personalization knowledge-sharing mechanisms are more suitable for organizations
conducting tasks or encountering problems that are more unique in nature (Boh, 2007).
2. Codification Strategy
Where codification strategy is used, knowledge is captured and stored so it can be
accessed and used by the whole organization. Codification can be a good mechanism to store
large amounts of knowledge and to create an organizational memory for all employees
(Goodman and Darr, 1998).
Codification strategy defined by: - Codifying the knowledge and storing it in databases;
- ‘Hard’ project data - database records, documents, standard operating procedures, project
definition, activities, history and results; - A knowledge base which contains the content or
knowledge that is of value to the organization; By using codification strategy the knowledge
is shared through: • Integrating processes between Individuals and Groups: - Sharing prior
project documents (e.g. specifications) informally - Manuals written voluntary • Processes
Institutionalised in Routines and Structure: - Database of project abstracts, proposals and
resumes
Templates Codification knowledge-sharing mechanisms are more suitable for
organizations conducting tasks or encountering problems that are more standardized and
routine in nature (Boh, 2007).
Base on 04 chapters above, three questions which mentioned in the first chapter are
answered. The questions are:
Q1: How do the Characteristics of Knowledge management in IT projects in Vietnam
now?
Answer: Most IT projects in Vietnam have not applied knowledge management systems
Q2: What factors affect Knowledge Management in IT projects in Vietnam?
Answer: There are many factors that affect knowledge management in IT projects in
Vietnam. In Chapter 3, the analysis is very detailed.
Q3: What process/model should be used to manage knowledge in IT projects in
Vietnam?
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 70
According to analyzes in previous chapters, the selection of the integrated knowledge
management model for managing knowledge in IT projects in Vietnam is the most
appropriate now.
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 71
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Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 74
APPENDICES
APPENDICES A: LIST OF VINASA'S SOFTWARE MEMBERS
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
1 1-V
Công ty Cổ phần Hệ
thống 1-V
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.1vs.vn
2 3S
Công ty CP Phần
mềm Quốc tế 3S
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://3si.vn/en/
3 ANS ASIA
Công ty TNHH ANS
ASIA
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.ans-asia.com
4 Aricent
Công ty TNHH
Aricent Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.aricent.com
5 Arrow
Công ty TNHH Công
nghệ Arrow Việt
Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://arrow-tech.vn
6 ASC
Công ty CP Thương
mại và Ứng dụng
Công nghệ cao Ánh
sáng
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.thuoc.vn/
7 ASTEC Công ty cổ phần ứng Sản www.astec.vn
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 75
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
dụng và dịch vụ công
nghệ cao
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
8 Augen Vietnam
Công ty TNNH
Augen Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.augensoftwaregroup.com
9 AZStack
Công ty TNHH
AZStack
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://azstack.co
10 Bravo
Công ty Cổ phần
Phần mềm BRAVO
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.bravo.com.vn/vi
11 BUCA
Công ty cổ phần
BuCA
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.buca.vn
12 CADPRO
Công ty cổ phần Phần
mềm Tự động hoá -
Điều khiển
(CADPRO)
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.cadprovn.com
13 CAPGEMINIi Công ty Capgemini
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.capgemini.com
14 CIC Công ty cổ phần Tin Sản http://www.cic.com.vn/
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 76
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
học và Tư vấn xây
dựng (Bộ XD)- CIC
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
15 CMCSoft
Công ty TNHH Giải
pháp Phần mềm
CMC (CMCSoft)
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.cmcsoft.com
16 CNC
Công ty CP Đầu tư và
Phát triển Công nghệ
cao CNC
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://cnc.com.vn/home
17 Codelovers
Công ty cổ phần
Codelovers Vietnam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://codelovers.vn/
18
Công ty CP
Giáo dục Việt
Nam
Công ty cổ phần Giáo
dục Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.giaoducvietnam.edu.vn/
19 CPIT Công ty CP CPIT
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.cpit.com.vn
20 CSC
Công ty CSC Việt
Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.csc.com
21 CT-In Công ty cổ phần viên Sản http://www.ct-in.com.vn
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 77
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
thông - tin học Bưu
Điện
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
22 CUSC
Trung tâm Công nghệ
Phần mềm trường Đại
học Cần Thơ
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.cusc.vn
23 DFT
Công ty Cổ phần
công nghệ DFT Việt
Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://dft.vn
24 Diginet
Công ty CP Dịch vụ
Viên thông số
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.dgn.vn
25 DMSPRO
Công ty Cổ phần
DMSPRO
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.dmspro.vn
26 DOLSOFT
Công ty cổ phần tin
học phần mềm Cá
heo
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.dolsoft.com
27 Dong Tien
Công ty Cổ phần
Dịch vụ Đông Tiến
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.dtsc.vn
28 Ecomedic Công ty TNHH Sản https://ecomedic.vn
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 78
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
TNHH ECOMEDIC Xuất
Phần
Mềm
29 EFY
Công ty cổ phần
Công nghệ Tin học
EFY Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.efy.com.vn
30 ELCA
Công ty TNHH Công
Nghệ Thông Tin
ELCA Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.elca.vn/
31 EMobi
Công ty cổ phần TRÒ
CHƠI EMOBI
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.emobigames.vn/
32 ESOFT
Công ty phần mềm
Esoft
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.esoft.com.vn
33 ESS
Công ty cổ phần
GIẢI PHÁP PHẦN
MỀM ESS
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.ess.com.vn
34 FPT Software
Công ty Cổ phần
Phần mềm FPT
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.fpt-software.com
35 Framgia Công ty TNHH Sản http://framgia.co.jp
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 79
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
Vietnam FRAMGIA Việt Nam Xuất
Phần
Mềm
36 FSC, J.S.C
Công ty cổ phần Điện
tử Tin học FSC
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.fscvietnam.com;
www.fsc.vn
37 Fujitsu Việt
Nam
Công ty TNHH
Fujitsu Việt nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
vn.fujitsu.com
38 G9
Công ty CP Đầu tư
Thương mại G9 Việt
Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
G9vietnam.com.vn
39 GEM
Công ty Cổ phần
GEM
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.gemvietnam.com/
40 GMS
Công ty cổ phần công
nghệ cao GMS
(GMSVietnam)
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.gmsvietnam.com
41 Gold Software
Công ty TNHH
Thương Mại & Dịch
Vụ Tin Học Phần
Mềm Vàng
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.phanmemvang.com.vn
42 Han Quang Công ty TNHH Giải Sản www.hqsoft.com.vn
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 80
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
pháp Phần mềm Hân
Quang
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
43 Hanel
Software
Công ty Cổ phần Giải
pháp Phần mềm
Hanel
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.hanelsoft.vn
44 Hoan Hao
Công ty TNHH MTV
Phần mềm Hoàn Hảo
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
perfect.com.vn
45 HOSCO
Công ty cổ phần
HOSCO
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www. hosco.com.vn
46 Hyperlogy
Công Ty Cổ Phần
Đầu tư Phát triển
Công nghệ Ứng dụng
Toàn Cầu
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
https://www.hyperlogy.com
47 IDTEK
Công Ty Cổ Phần
IDTEK
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.idtek.com.vn
48 JCS
Công ty TNHH Phần
mềm máy tính Nhật
Bản
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.jcs-corp.com
49 KMS Công ty TNHH KMS Sản http://kms-technology.com
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Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
Technology
Việt Nam
TECHNOLOGY
VIỆT NAM
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
50 LAMPART
Công ty TNHH
LAMPART
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://lampart.com.vn
51 Luxoft
Công ty TNHH
Luxoft Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.luxoft.com
52 METRIXA
Công ty TNHH Công
nghệ METRIXA
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.metrixa.com
53 Microsoft Việt
Nam
VPĐD công ty
Microsoft Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.microsoft.com/vietnam
54 Misa
Công ty Cổ phần
MISA
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.misa.com.vn
55 Misoft
Công ty phát triển
phần mềm và hô trơ
công nghệ (Misoft)
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http:// www.misoft.com.vn
56 MQ ICT Công ty Cổ phần giải Sản http://mqsolutions.vn/
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Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 82
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
Solutions pháp Công nghệ
thông tin và truyền
thông MQ
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
57 NAL
Công ty Cổ phần
NAL Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://nal.vn/
58 Nam Viet
Công ty Cổ phần Giải
pháp Giáo dục Nam
Việt
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http:// namvietjsc.edu.vn
59 Nanosoft
Công ty CP Công
nghệ NANOSOFT
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.nanosoft.vn
60 Netvalue
Công ty TNHH Cung
cấp Sản phẩm và
Dịch vụ Trực tuyến
Netvalue
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://netvalue.vn
61 New Saigon
Công ty cổ phần Phần
mềm Sài Gòn Mới
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.newsaigonsoft.com
62 NIDI
Công ty CP Giải pháp
Công nghệ NIDI
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.nidi.com.vn
63 Orient Công ty CP Phát triển Sản www.orientsoftware.net
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
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Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
Software Phần mềm Á Đông Xuất
Phần
Mềm
64 Orientsoft
Công ty cổ phần phần
mềm Phương Đông
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.orientsoft.vn
65 OWS
Công ty Cổ phần
OWS Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://ows.vn
66 Portlogics
Công ty Cổ phần Giải
pháp Cảng và Hậu
Cần
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
htttp://www.portlogics.com.vn
67 QSoft Việt
Nam
QSoft Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.qsoftvietnam.com
68 Quảng Trị
Trung tâm Tin học
tỉnh Quảng Trị
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://tinhoc.quangtri.gov.vn
69 Quang Trung
Software
Công ty phát triển
Công viên phần mềm
Quang Trung
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.quangtrungsoft.com.vn
70 RDSoft Công ty cổ phần Sản http://www.rdsoft.vn
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Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 84
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
nghiên cứu và phát
triển phần mềm Việt
nam
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
71 Relipa
Công ty TNHH
Relipa
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
https://www.relipasoft.com
72 Roxwin
Công ty TNHH Công
nghệ Roxwin Việt
Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.roxwin.com
73 RunSystem
Công ty Cổ phần
công nghệ thông tin
R.U.N
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.runsystem.net
74 Saigon
Technology
Công ty TNHH Phần
mềm Saigon
Technology
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.saigontechnology.vn
75 SaoMai Soft
Công ty cổ phần Phần
mềm Sao Mai
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://saomaisoft.com
76 SCOM
Công ty TNHH Phần
mềm SCOM
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.scomcorporation.com
77 SDT Công ty cổ phần Sản http://www.sdt.vn
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 85
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
PHẦN MỀM SDT Xuất
Phần
Mềm
78 SEA-Solutions
Công ty SEA-
Solutions
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.sea-solutions.com
79 Serenco
Công ty Cổ phần Giải
pháp Phần mềm
Thiều Quang
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.serenco.net
80 SIMAX
Công ty Cổ phần
Công nghệ và Giải
pháp SIMAX
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.simax.vn
81 SOFIAMEDIX
Công ty TNHH phần
mềm SOFIAMEDIX
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
https://www.sofiamedix.vn/
82 SoftTech
Công ty cổ phần
Công nghệ phần mềm
Đà Năng
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.softtech.vn/
83 SSI Công ty TNHH SSI
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
ssisoft.com
84 SunVN Công ty CP Thương Sản https://sunvnmedia.com
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 86
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
mại và Dịch vụ
Truyền thông Sun
VN
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
85 TDA
Công ty Cổ phần Giải
pháp Công nghệ Tâm
Đạt
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.tdasolution.com
86 Tecapro
Công ty TNHH MTV
Ứng dụng Kỹ thuật
và Sản xuất
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.tecapro.com.vn
87 Techelite
Công ty Cổ phần
Techelite
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://techeliteinc.com
88 ThaiSonSoft
Công ty TNHH
PHÁT TRIỂN CÔNG
NGHỆ THÁI SƠN
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.thaisonsoft.com.vn
89 Thân Hộ
Công ty TNHH
THẦN HỘ
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.kobekara.com
90 TheheGeo
Công ty TNHH Thế
Hệ Geo
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
https://thehegeo.com
91 Thiên Hoàng Công ty cổ phần Giải Sản http://www.thienhoang.com.vn
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 87
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
pháp Thiên Hoàng Xuất
Phần
Mềm
92 Tinh Vân
Công ty Cổ phần
Công nghệ Tinh Vân
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.tinhvan.com
93 TPS
Công ty Cổ phần
Phần mềm TPS
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.tpssoft.com
94 TRU-E
Công ty cổ phần
Công nghệ và Dịch
vụ truyền thông
TRU-E
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.tru-e.vn
95 Unitech
Công ty cổ phần
Công nghệ Tâm Hơp
Nhất
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.unitech.vn
96 USOL Việt
Nam
Công ty USOL Việt
Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.usol-v.com.vn/
97 VCM
Công ty TNHH VCM
Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.thuecongty.com
98 Vietstar Công ty TNHH Giải Sản www.vietsst.com
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 88
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
pháp & Công nghệ
SAO VIỆT
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
99 VIETTREND
Công ty cổ phần
truyền thông
Viettrend
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.viettrend.net
100 VKX Công ty TNHH VKX
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.vkx.com.vn
101 VMODEV
Công ty Cổ phần
Công nghệ
VMODEV Hà Nội
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://vmodev.com
102 VNG
Công ty Cổ Phần
VNG
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://vng.org.vn
103 VNPT Hải
Phòng
Trung tâm Tin học-
VNPT Hải Phòng
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http://www.hptel.com.vn
104 VP9
Công ty Cổ phần VP9
Việt Nam
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
www.vp9.tv
105 VSII Công ty cổ phần Phần Sản http://www.vsi-international.com
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 89
Index Mã Công ty Ngành Website
mềm Việt Quốc tế Xuất
Phần
Mềm
106 Zinza
Công ty TNHH Zinza
Technology
Sản
Xuất
Phần
Mềm
http:// zinza.com.vn
APPENDEX B: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE MAIN SURVEY
PART 1: ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS AND KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
PROCESS
(Circle the right choice or stick “x” in the box)
Q1. How are the following types of knowledge important to you or/and your company? Please
rate the importance level associated with each of the following knowledge by using this scale:
(1: Not important at all; 5: Very important; N/A= Not Applicable.)
N/A
Knowledge of management 1 2 3 4 5
Knowledge of external environment 1 2 3 4 5
Knowledge of company’s culture 1 2 3 4 5
Knowledge of market 1 2 3 4 5
Knowledge of technology 1 2 3 4 5
Information Technology Tools
Q2. Which information system does your company currently use?
a) Paper-based system
b) Computer-based system
c) Mixed of the two systems
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 90
Q3. Which IT tools does your company currently use?
Intranet Company's website Decision support system Email
Video-conferencing Expert system
Internal electronic bulletin board Internet E-library
Q4. How often do you use the following IT tools in the company?
[1=never, 2=occasionally (less than once a month), 3=often (between once a month and
once a week), 4=regularly (several times a week), 5=all the time (everyday); N/A = not
applicable]
N/A
E-library 1 2 3 4 5
Intranet 1 2 3 4 5
Email 1 2 3 4 5
Company website 1 2 3 4 5
Video-conferencing 1 2 3 4 5
Internet 1 2 3 4 5
Internal electronic bulletin board 1 2 3 4 5
Decision support system 1 2 3 4 5
Expert system 1 2 3 4 5
Q5. How often do you use the above IT tools for following activities?
[1=never, 2=occasionally (less than once a month), 3=often (between once a month and once
a week), 4=regularly (several times a week), 5=all the time (everyday)]
N/A
Search for information within department/company 1 2 3 4 5
Gather information for own interest 1 2 3 4 5
Publish information that will be of use to others in the company 1 2 3 4 5
Store information in the database for general access in the company 1 2 3 4 5
Search for information from sites outside a company 1 2 3 4 5
Exchange information with others 1 2 3 4 5
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 91
Q6. To what extent each of the following IT tools support the process of knowledge
transfer within the company? (1=Little; 2=, 3= Moderate; 4 =; 5=Very much; N/A= Not
Applicable)
N/A
E-library 1 2 3 4 5
Intranet 1 2 3 4 5
Email 1 2 3 4 5
Company website 1 2 3 4 5
Video-conferencing 1 2 3 4 5
Internet 1 2 3 4 5
Internal electronic bulletin board 1 2 3 4 5
Decision support system 1 2 3 4 5
Expert system 1 2 3 4 5
Please indicate your level of agreement with the statements appear in the question to question
20 by using the scale: (1= Strongly disagree; 2= Somewhat disagree; 3= Neutral; 4=
Somewhat agree; 5= Strongly agree; N/A= Not Applicable)
Q7. How did the IT tools support the process of knowledge transfer in your company?
N/A
The knowledge storage capacity is significantly increased 1 2 3 4 5
The knowledge transmission capacity is significantly increased 1 2 3 4 5
The speed of exchanging information is significantly increased 1 2 3 4 5
The accessibility to the wide range and depth of information is significantly increased 1 2 3 4
5
The process of exchanging knowledge is more convenient 1 2 3 4 5
The location and time constraints in communication is overcomed 1 2 3 4 5
Overall, the IT tools support a lot for the process of exchanging knowledge among people in
the company 1 2 3 4 5
Q8. How do you find the level of ease in using company’s IT tools for exchanging knowledge
with others along following aspects?
N/A
There is a clear guideline of using IT tools 1 2 3 4 5
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 92
Interaction with the available IT tools does not require a lot of my mental effort 1 2 3 4 5
It is easy to manage the use of available IT tools 1 2 3 4 5
Overall, I find the use of the available IT tools easy 1 2 3 4 5
Q9. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements that describe the
degree people in your company is encouraged to work in team.
N/A
People work like they are part of a team 1 2 3 4 5
Teamwork is used to get work done, rather than hierarchy 1 2 3 4 5
When work together as a team, member's task can not finished until everyone in team has
finished his/her task. 1 2 3 4 5
The work is divided up so that everyone has a part and everyone has to share
1 2 3 4 5
When work in a team, the assignment or project can not be completed unless everyone
contributes 1 2 3 4 5
Interdisciplinary cross-functional teamwork is extremely important for taking decision and
solving problem 1 2 3 4 5
People from different departments frequently interact to discuss work-related issues 1 2 3 4 5
Overall, teamwork is much encouraged 1 2 3 4 5
Q10. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements that describe the
level of adaptability (i.e., attitude toward learning, taking risk and creating change) of people
in your company.
N/A
People view failure as an opportunity for learning and improvement 1 2 3 4 5
Innovation and risk taking are encouraged and rewarded 1 2 3 4 5
Learning is an important objective in daily work 1 2 3 4 5
The way things are done is very flexible and easy to change 1 2 3 4 5
New and improved ways of doing works are continually adopted 1 2 3 4 5
Overall, people in the company demonstrate a high level of adaptability 1 2 3 4 5
Q11. Please indicate your level of agreement with following statements that describe the level
of collaboration among individuals in your company.
N/A
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 93
People in the company coordinate with one another in doing tasks very well 1 2 3 4 5
Cooperation among employees across different parts of the company is actively encouraged 1
2 3 4 5
It is easy to coordinate projects across different parts of the company 1 2 3 4 5
Overall, the level of collaboration among individuals in the company is high 1 2 3 4 5
Q12. Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements that describe the
degree to which members of your company share goals and tasks.
N/A
There is a long-term purpose and strategic direction of an organization 1 2 3 4 5
There is a clear mission that gives meaning and direction to people's works 1 2 3 4 5
People understand and share the same business objectives 1 2 3 4 5
People continuously track their progress against stated goals 1 2 3 4 5
PART 2: BACKGROUND INFORMATION
About your company
Q13. Name of your company:............................................................................................
Q14. Year of company's establishment:………………………………………………….
Q15. Main business area of your company:
Software related product
Hardware product
IT service
Telecommunication service and equipment
Electronic equipment
Others
Q16. Your company's ownership:
Private company £ Liability Ltd. company £ Joint venture company
Joint stock company £ State-owned enterprise £ Others (Please specify)……
Q17. Number of full-time employees in your company:
- - - >= 250
Q 18. Does your company have colaboration portal to share works result?
Knowledge management in IT Project in Vietnam
Nguyen Dinh Huan – MSE0013 94
yes No
Q 19. How many IT project did your company implement in 2015-2016 period?
………………….
Q20. Did your compnay apply any method of sharing knowledge in the projects?
yes No
Q21. What are things orcured in your company IT projects?
Business Needs Changed
Key experienced staffs moved to other company
Did Not Deliver as Promised
Project Was No Longer a Priority
Project Exceeded the Budget
Project Did Not Support the Business Strategy
Others
About You (the person who input data in to the survey form)
Q22. Gender Female
Q23. Your working experience in the company:
- - More than 5 years
Q24. Your current working position:
Senior manager
Q25. Your contact address:………………………………………………………………