New Product Development and Management of Knowledge in Portuguese Higher Education

This chapter uses key concepts in the knowledge management literature to analyse the procedures and practices used by a project management team to identify, create, store, disseminate, and apply knowledge management systems for successful project completion. This project allowed a long established participant to develop on-line delivery capabilities in Portuguese higher education. The case study suggests that, throughout the project, implementing effective knowledge management practices required that participants widened and deepened the required knowledge base in five distinct areas: project management, the team, product/solution, the companies involved in the project, and the interaction with the external environment. The analysis also suggests as key requirements for effective knowledge management those relating to trust between the parties, key knowledge workers, and heavy dependence on new information and communication technologies.