**1. Introduction**

200 New Research on Knowledge Management Technology

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Knowledge management (KM) is the collection of processes governing the creation, storage, reuse, maintenance, dissemination and reuse of knowledge. KM refers to the collection of processes controlling the creation, storage and usage of experience in a particular situation or problem solving context. To transfer knowledge between experienced engineers, construction professionals have traditionally used techniques ranging from formal annual meetings to face-to-face interviews. Construction KM focuses on the acquisition and management of important issues and experience from participating engineers.

To enhance the quality of KM gained by engineers involved in construction projects, this study proposes a knowledge flow approach integrated with mind mapping to achieving KM solutions in the construction industry. Combined with web-based technology and mind mapping, this study proposes a Construction Web Topic-based Knowledge Management (CWTKM) system enabling engineers to reuse domain knowledge and experience by dynamically exchanging and managing knowledge during the construction phase of a project. In the proposed CWTKM system, the topic-based experience exchange environment in the mind map enables engineers to illustrate and share their experience with other engineers effectively. Engineers are, thus, invited to exchange and share their knowledge based on their previous experience.

By integrating web-based technology and mind mapping, engineers can obtain problem solutions and experience directly from senior engineers, decreasing the time and reducing the cost of on-the-job training. By exchanging and sharing previous experiences among engineers, similar and related experiences used to execute similar projects can clarify domain knowledge and enable the exchange of knowledge through web KM. The CWTKM system provides a web-based platform for users who can request assistance from selected or all engineers in the enterprise who have relevant experience. The user can also submit knowledge description using mind mapping in CWTKM system. Moreover, senior and junior engineers can effectively and easily exchange knowledge and experience regarding a specific aspect of their current construction project. In this study of a Taiwan construction building project, the survey (questionnaire) results indicated that the CWTKM system, integrated with mind mapping approach is effective for construction knowledge exchange and management.

Enhancing Knowledge Management for Engineers Using Mind Mapping in Construction 203

This study concentrates on new approaches for managing and reusing past specific knowledge for a construction project framework. With the newly proposed TBM approach and integration of mind mapping techniques, service engineers and practitioners can exchange original ideas, experience, knowledge and commands. By integrating TBM and mind mapping techniques, engineers can obtain problem solutions and experience directly from senior engineers, decreasing the time and reducing the cost of on-the-job training. By exchanging and sharing previous knowledge among engineers, similar and related knowledge used to execute similar projects can clarify domain knowledge and enable the

To apply KM to new or other construction projects, the process and content of project knowledge must be collected, recorded and stored effectively in the CWTKM system. To assist the participating engineers in illustrating and managing their own project experience, Topic-based mapping is presented to help them explore their acquired experience. . The main objectives of this study are as follows: (1) enhance the illustration capabilities using the TBM approach and mind mapping techniques of captured experience of engineers and experts related to construction projects; (2) optimize the communication of tacit experience among participating engineers in the exchanging environment; and (3) design an efficient topic-based mapping for users to effectively locate parallel experience from relative engineers. The CWTKM system is then applied in selected case studies of a Taiwan construction building project to verify the proposed approach and demonstrate the value of

**Create Knowledge Map Knowledge**

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Fig. 1. The application of CWTKM in construction projects.

exchange of knowledge through web-based KM platform.

sharing experience in the construction phase.

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**New Project**

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**Topic-based Maps integrated with Mind Mapping**

**Share Knowledge**

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