Storytelling for project knowledge management across the project life cycle

Project organizations face the problems to manage knowledge embedded in various projects because of the uniqueness and short-term orientation of most projects. Therefore, project knowledge management is regarded as an important approach to building competitive advantages. This paper aimed to examine the application of storytelling as an effective and inexpensive mechanism for managing project knowledge. The study was conducted with the project management office from the Tax Administration and Reform Automation (TARA) program in Iran. A questionnaire survey was used to analyze the storytelling applications in the projects of the TARA program. Based on the result, a conceptual framework of storytelling was proposed for integration into the project management lifecycle.


Introduction
Identification of vital knowledge from previous projects for reuse in future projects is critical for many project organizations (Kasvi, Vartiainen, & Hailikari, 2003).If the organizations retain such knowledge and experience, they could save considerable costs resulting from redundant work and repetition of mistakes.However, the risk of a knowledge loss at a project's end is a serious problem for these organizations (Schindler & Eppler, 2003).There are many sorts of mechanisms to overcome this problem to contribute to knowledge capture, sharing, transfer and reuse (De Long & Davenport, 2003).Davenport and Prusak (1998) claimed that a convincing story is the most efficient way of knowledge transfer.Storytelling as a mechanism for extracting knowledge can be a helpful tool to attain the valuable tacit knowledge within a project team on an ongoing basis and with low cost (Haghirian & Chini, 2002).It can convey complicated messages with far greater penetration than other methods of communication (O'Gorman & Gillespie, 2010).Although several articles and publications have looked into learning and transferring project experiences (De Long & Davenport, 2003;Kasvi, Vartiainen, & Hailikari, 2003;Schindler & Eppler, 2003;Ruuska & Vartiainen, 2005), the application of storytelling in the life cycle of a project has not been investigated in the literature.This study presents a conceptual framework of storytelling and integrates it into the project management lifecycle.

Storytelling
The root of the English word story is found in Latin and Greek words for knowing, knowledge and wisdom, and the words narrate and narrative have the same meaning (Ferneley & Sobreperez, 2009).Ever since human beings have communicated and socially interacted with each other, stories have played a vital role in exchanging and disclosing knowledge.In every culture, different stories exist and have been used to preserve and pass on knowledge from generation to generation (Wende & Haghirian, 2009).So it can be said that storytelling has always played a role in the evolution and survival of cultures and has provided access to wisdom of the past.Stories are the handbooks of how to behave.Through stories, everyone can see who he has been and envision who he may become (Benjamin, 2006).Therefore one of the greatest sources of stories is individual experience (Harris & Barnes, 2006).A number of story definitions are presented in Table 1.
The knowledge to be sent needs a format that can be understood by the receiver.Lately, much emphasis has been placed on stories as a mechanism for organizational knowledge management (Wende & Haghirian, 2009).Stories emerge as a natural part in everyday organizational life and develop from its events, successes and failures (Wende & Haghirian, 2009).As a company's history is accumulated, part of it is chronicled in stories (James & Minnis, 2004).They penetrate organizations and tap into the emotions of employees for inspiring action and understanding (O'Gorman & Gillespie, 2010).
According to Denning (2006), storytelling is a tool to achieve business purposes.Stories about the company, managers and employees are told to new employees to portray principal values and norms for them (Daft, 1999).Organizational story is a detailed narrative of past management actions, employee interactions, or other intra-or extra-organizational events or report about company related incidents that happened in the past and that have a special meaning for the company (Wende & Haghirian, 2009).These stories are usually communicated both informal and formal methods.The most formal method of storytelling in organizations is the case study (Benjamin, 2006).Written and spoken experiences of employees in social, psychological and cultural context, in which the organization operates, are part of the organizational stories (Bhardwaj & Monnin, 2006).However, one of the benefits of stories is their flexibility and handiness (Sole & Wilson, 2002).A story creates an indelible message (Harris & Barnes, 2006).

Table 1
Definitions of story from researchers' perspective

Definitions of Story Author(s)
Stories discipline by defining characters, sequencing plots, and scripting actions for interpreting past or anticipated experience.Boje (1995) Stories are facts wrapped in an emotion that can compel us to take action and so transform the world around us.Dickman (2003) Stories are an old way of organizing knowledge.Schwartz (1996) Stories are a form of edutainment: education enriched with entertainment.Zeelen, Wijbenga, Vintges, and Jong (2010) Stories are interpretative resources, models and scenarios through which we make sense of what are happening to us and frame our action.Cupitt (1991) Stories are the smallest unity by which human beings communicate their experience and knowledge of the world.

Greenhalgh (2009)
O'Gorman and Gillespie (2010) observed that stories are not a pleasant embellishment; rather, they are a vital resource for getting the right things done and they provide another form of institutional knowledge.Denning (2006) claimed that the art of performing a story to achieve a business result is however quite different from telling a story for the purposes of entertainment.Stories go beyond what did happen to imply what should happen (Feldman, 1990).Storytelling becomes especially prominent in turbulent environments such as technological change when stories and storytelling are often used to adapt with the dynamics of change and learn the new ways (Law, 2009).
Stories about winning innovations help inspire employees to create new ideas.Salesmen are trained to use narratives to explain the advantages of using their products to customers (James & Minnis, 2004).Douglas Holt, the L'Oreal Chair of Marketing at Oxford University, said Customers buy the product to experience stories.The product is simply a conduit through which customers can experience the stories that the brand tells.An effective cultural strategy creates a storied product that has distinctive branded features through which customers experience identity myths (Denning, 2006).Harris and Barnes (2006) believed that storytelling can be used as an effective tool for leadership.Some common themes for leadership stories include mistakes and failures, choices and consequences, risk and reward, lessons learned and etc.Based on the literature, the purposes of storytelling are summarized in Table 2.

Project management
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a standard which identifies a subset of knowledge generally recognized as good practice for project management.It defines project management as well as associated concepts.A project is one of the dominating modes of international business today.Companies interact with their customers in projects for a certain period (Sofianti, Suryadi, Govindaraju, & Prihartono, 2013).According to the PMBOK Guide, a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or outcome.Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques for project activities to meet the project requirements.In mature project management organizations, project management exists in broader context governed by program management and a program is a group of related projects managed in coordinated way (PMI, 2008).
Project life cycle is a set of logical steps and phases, which defines, prepares and delivers product of the project (Marchewka, 2009).These steps contain initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling and closing (PMI, 2008).

Storytelling and project management
Munk-Madsen and Andersen (2006) believed that the project stories enhance the chances of projects for success.According to Amtoft (1994), all projects are surrounded by one or more stories, just like many other products of human activity.The story of the project provides meaning to the present situation of the project as well as some clues to its future.Project stories contain beneficial information about various formal and informal expectations of the project, which are often known as a source of problems.Controlling the expectations and creation of alignment with project goals are the main purposes of these stories.Many truths and answers are hided in old stories, which may explain why the project looks the way it currently does.Stories thus create an idea about whether the project is on the right track and also about the changes in expectations and needs during different courses of the project.It is shown that a lot of energy is relieved in the storytelling process, as the stories answer many unanswered questions in the project.All these various stories form a part of the project basis which has been largely overlooked until now.
Stories crystallize common values and beliefs.They build stronger teams and a stronger sense of community.Stories invite employees to bring the whole person to work (both heart and head), and so elicit much more comprehensive perspectives and meaningful commitments.They create a field for work aspirations and thus make each employee feel more valued.Project managers can relate stories for introducing themselves to a new team, orienting new people to team or organization, starting a meeting about a difficult issue, disclosing a failure, encouraging openness (Harris & Barnes, 2006), calming employees during a crisis, solving problems, making decision and etc., (James & Minnis, 2004).So the project managers must actively take part in producing an official and credible story which minimizes the possibilities of misinterpretation (Amtoft, 1994).
In short, stories have the potential to revitalize the way of business projects (Adamson, Pine, Steenhoven, & Kroupa, 2006).When a project is finished, a common story should be constructed and told to everyone with an influence on future of the company.Table 3 summarizes the purposes of storytelling in project management.

Table 3
Purposes of storytelling in a project

Research gap
While storytelling was investigated as an effective mechanism for knowledge management of projects, there are a few studies examining the application of storytelling

Purposes of storytelling in a project Author(s)
Provide information about the present and future of the project Amtoft (1994) Reduce false perceptions of the project Create a shared vision among team members and stakeholders Provide ideas for future actions Convince customers about products

Simulate hazardous situations
Improve decision making and receive feedback about decisions in project contexts.Amtoft (1994) introduced storytelling as a means of supporting project management.However, he attributed the most role of story to creating a common understanding between project team and stakeholders.Vendola (1998) noticed the use of stories to communicate with project customers, understand their expectations, transfer values, and learn from failure experiences.Boddy and Paton (2004) provided project managers with some recommendations on using stories in change management and influencing stakeholders.Nielsen and Madsen (2005) suggested using stories in change management and requirement analysis to some extent.They considered the role of storytelling in post-project evaluation and knowledge sharing, but limited to few cases with a focus on project plan in the story.Therefore, to the best of our knowledge, there lack a comprehensive study to explain the role of storytelling throughout the life cycle of the project.

Research method
This study was conducted with the project management office of the Tax Administration and Reform Automation (TARA) program in Iran.The main goal of the TARA program is the design and development of an Integrated Tax System, the most important national software systems in Iran, for improving the existing tax administration and collection process, as well as for implementing a fully integrated technology solution to manage taxpayer information and automate manual processes.The TARA program includes unique and complex projects, and storytelling are applied to transfer knowledge in the various phases of these projects.
The storytelling applications in these projects were extracted by a survey questionnaire comprised of 58 questions, which was designed based on 5-point Likert scale and validated by the experts.The data were collected from 31 project managers and experts working in the project management office.22 participants completed the questionnaire and the return rate was 71%.Finally, a conceptual framework was designed for storytelling applications in projects management life cycle of the TARA program.

Data analysis
58 storytelling applications were identified based on the literature and the questionnaire was designed accordingly to examine storytelling applications in the project life cycle of the TRRA program.The questionnaire was delivered to 5 experts to determine the validity.
After verifying the validity, the questionnaire was distributed in the project management office of the TARA program.As the data were gathered from less than 30 participants, the binomial test was used for data analysis and the Friedman test for ranking the results.
Results of the binomial test on data revealed that among the 58 storytelling applications, just 38 of them were used in the projects of this program (Table 4).Among the 38 storytelling applications used in this program, 12 cases were associated with the planning group, 11 cases with the executing group, 6 cases with the closing group, 5 cases with the initiating group, and just 4 cases with the monitoring and control group.Results of the Friedman test showed that there was no significant difference among the applications in terms of importance.Results of the Friedman test showed that there was a significant difference among the applications in terms of importance.Three mostly used applications in the TARA projects were listed as the following: ․ Share and exchange project experiences from close project process; ․ Define risks and problems from plan risk management process; ․ Document project experiences from close project process.
As a result of the data analysis, 38 storytelling applications used in the TARA program was disclosed.Accordingly, a conceptual framework was designed under five process groups of the project life cycle.It included five tables and each table had three columns, namely: processes, application of storytelling and purposes of storytelling.

Initiating process group
This group consists of those processes performed to define a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase.Storytelling applications and purposes in this group, which were used in the TARA program, are presented in Table 5.

Table 5
Applications and purposes of storytelling in the initiating process group

Planning process group
This process group consists of those processes performed to establish the total scope of the effort to define and refine objectives, and develop the course of action required to attain those objectives.Storytelling applications and purposes used in this group are presented in Table 6.

Planning process group
This group consists of those processes performed to complete the work defined in the project management plan to satisfy the project specifications.Storytelling applications and purposes used in this group are presented in Table 7.

Table 7
Applications and purposes of storytelling in the executing process group

Processes Applications Purposes
Direct and manage project execution

Monitoring and controlling process group
This group consists of those processes required to track, review, and regulate the progress and performance of the project; identify any areas where changes to the plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes.Storytelling applications and purposes used in this group are presented in Table 8.

Closing process group
This group consists of those processes performed to finalize all activities across all project management process groups to formally complete the project obligations.
Storytelling applications and purposes used in this group are presented in Table 9.

Conclusion
This study examined the application of storytelling as an effective and inexpensive mechanism for managing project knowledge.The study was conducted with the project management office from the TARA program.A questionnaire survey identified 38 storytelling applications in the projects.The results show that the extent of using these applications had significant difference; and the TARA program has benefitted most from the storytelling applications in three aspects, namely Share and exchange project experiences from Close project process, Define risks and problems from Plan risk management process, Document project experiences from Close project process.Based on the results, a conceptual framework of storytelling was proposed for integration into the project management lifecycle.
Moreover, the following suggestions are offered for future studies: ․ Studying the use of the storytelling applications in project-based organizations in different industries; ․ Developing an algorithm for storytelling in project contexts; ․ Examining the effect of false stories on the success of projects.

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Understand principles and characteristics of business -Show mission, vision, goals and strategies of the organization Understand organizational environment and structure.-Understand organization past Introduce project Describe project and its goals -Identify and understand project challenges and opportunities -Show project achievements Introduce project product -Generate ideas for definition of product features -Describe expectations from product capabilities Overall introduction of project stakeholders -Introduce the project primary stakeholders -Understand the overall needs of stakeholders Identify stakeholders Introduce project stakeholders -Introduce project stakeholders -Understand ideas, motivations, needs and goals of the project stakeholders -Communication and interaction between project stakeholders Persuade investors to continue the project -Create alignment between stakeholder expectations and project goals

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Guide decision making, problem solving and action -Coordinating -Manage personnel safety and health -Manage performance and improve productivity Manage change -Facilitate change -Create a team for implementing plans -Match characteristics of individuals with job requirements Explain different roles within teams -Create a shared vision among team members -Train new employees and their socialization -Create a team with high coordination and create awareness about individuals, teams and their roles in the team Transmit values, beliefs and project organization culture Foster cooperation and understanding of teamwork -Develop trust, empathy, commitment and improve the morale of members -Encourage creative and innovative culture -

Table 4
Results of the binomial test arranged using the Friedman test

Table 6
Applications and purposes of storytelling in the planning process group

Table 8
Applications and purposes of storytelling in the monitoring and controlling process group -Organize information and knowledge flow -Track performance

Table 9
Storytelling applications and purposes in the closing process group