Aramco wins Knowledge Management Excellence Award

Aramco’s Project Management Office Department (PMOD) knowledge management process has been recognized by APQC as one of the top 5% of participating companies. More than 300 global companies were assessed, 58 of which were from petroleum and chemical industries. 

APQC is a leading global authority in knowledge management benchmarking, best practices, and process improvement. 

This recognition is a testimony to the great efforts of the team who qualified because they were able to show real business impact.
— Sami S. Al-Shubaibi, manager of Aramco’s Project Management Office Department

Knowledge Management

In 2010, PMOD established its knowledge management process, which serves as a repository for all knowledge captured from company projects. The system includes documentation of successful processes and ones that failed with lessons learned. 

PMOD’s project knowledge management process also provides teams with precedents that assist them in coming up with solutions for new and old problems. 

In 2017, PMOD’s strategy became aligned with the then newly established corporate policy statement, requesting all departments to develop a systematic approach of creating, capturing, organizing, disseminating, and providing access to corporate intellectual capital to drive business gain, obtain competitive advantage, and to become a learning organization. 

Access to information and expertise

PMOD proceeded to integrate the established knowledge management processes with its employees’ day-to-day activities by assigning a goal to each employee. 

Additionally, PMOD’s employees were encouraged to actively participate in the PMOD Services Community of Practice (CoP). 

PMOD assigned subject matter experts (SMEs) to support the CoP, and these SMEs received email notifications of any discussions related to their area of expertise. This ensured that an appropriate response was provided to questions that were raised on the CoP. 

Engaging and recognizing employees

PMOD publishes a “Knowledge Moment” on its CoP every month, in which one of the SMEs explains a key term in project management. The PMOD team is also promoting innovation through the knowledge management system by encouraging its CoP community to focus on project challenges and to seek solutions that can be submitted through the company “Innovation Portal” for review, approval, and implementation.

In conjunction with these endeavors, PMOD launched a recognition program to ensure that employees are motivated and recognized for their participation in knowledge sharing processes. This recognition is provided by the PMOD manager on a quarterly basis to top contributors.

Continuing to develop

PMOD has continued its efforts with the development and enhancement of several technology applications to enhance and optimize project performance. Among these applications, the Lessons Learned Knowledge Base and the Project Risk Management Engine were developed within the VIPs Hub, a new single knowledge sharing platform. 

Finally, PMOD continues to engage in benchmarking exercises to identify areas for improvement and see the results of adopting best-in-class knowledge management processes.

“The PMOD knowledge management program helped us elevate the department’s performance,” said Al-Shubaibi. 

CAPTION FOR TOP PHOTOGRAPH
Sami S. Al-Shubaibi, shown here with the recent award from the American Productivity and Quality Center, said, “This recognition is a testimony to the great efforts of the team who qualified, because they were able to show real business impact.