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

•Uses survey data to test the differential impact of aligned plans and shared understanding on business value of IT-enabled business projects.•Finds that both knowledge management approaches positively impact project success.•Shared understanding between technology, business, and executive teams is the most important factor.

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