Objective:

The goal of the TEC project was to establish several communities of practice within the medical technology company under consideration. In doing so, the technology experts organized in the groups were to be connected across functions and departments. A network of informal contacts was to be established to share experiences and learn from completed projects, both from successes and failures, for future technology projects.

Procedure:

The basis is a series of workshops held by the expert groups. The focus is usually on a common process step (e.g., all employees work in logistics) or a common, "cross-cutting issue" (e.g., knowledge management). Selected topics of the context are worked on in each workshop. Communities of practice are particularly promising if they interact regularly and the groups do not exceed a certain situation-dependent group size. In addition, it is important to allow the group to develop its own culture and rules. Since Communities of Practice place particular emphasis on the integration of diverse individuals and promote social networking, they are a successful, decentralized concept for the concrete implementation of knowledge management.

Duration:

The "TEC Project" was successfully implemented in the period between 03/2005 and 2/2006.