1. Project Management Community of Practice
Inaugural Meeting
August 3, 2006

2. What is a Community of Practice?
The following explanations from Max’s Project Management Wisdom

3. What is a Community of Practice?
Common language - the group has some sort of language of its own
Shared background - the members have some shared background or baseline knowledge
Common purpose - the group has a broad common purpose, which gives it a continuing impetus
Creation of new knowledge - through the work of the group and the interaction of its member's new knowledge is created and shared
Interaction - there needs to be some form of social interaction
Dynamism - because of differential levels of knowledge and experience within the group there is a dynamic interplay between members as this is shared and recombined
Evolution - there is continuing, evolutionary development within the group

4. Voluntary - membership is generally voluntary
Narration - swapping "stories" is a key way in which members share their knowledge
Informal - the group is informal, with no official hierarchy
Fluidity - newcomers arrive and old-timers leave
Self perpetuating - as communities generate knowledge they reinforce and renew themselves

5. Community of Practice
Because they are voluntary and informal, communities of practice benefit from cultivation but not from control. However, to thrive they need support and a wide variety of tools to enable the easy exchange and sharing of tips, ideas, knowledge and experience. Above all, they need a common, shared sense of purpose and understanding of what they are trying to achieve.

6. Community of Practice
Good communities of practice collaborate directly, with members using one another as sounding boards, imparting knowledge and learning from each other. They are usually comprised of a diverse group of people with a variety of backgrounds and experience who find common cause in building best practice, solving problems, learning and coming up with new ideas. In the process, participants come to recognize that knowledge is "sticky". It can be shared without being lost and that in the process of sharing it, knowledge actually multiples. Innovation is, after all, no more and no less than the recombination of existing knowledge - but in new, better and different ways!