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Companies’ ability to learn from projects is a source of competitive advantage in project-based industries. Learning from experiences in international markets is particularly important for global contractors so that the right bidding strategy can be developed, effective project governance systems can be established, and similar mistakes are not repeated. In this study, we assert that countries can be clustered according to their similarity so that experiences gained in these markets can be transferred and adapted to forthcoming projects. Thus, similarity factors to be used for clustering of countries can be identified, and a methodology can be developed to store, retrieve and reuse country-related information in international construction projects. In this paper, we report the factors identified for similarity assessment of countries to be used to facilitate learning from projects. As a result of literature review, interviews with experts and an online questionnaire administered to company professionals who have international construction experience, 12 factors have been identified for clustering of countries. As a result of ranking analysis; factors of “development level of and culture in the construction industry”, “political condition of the country” and “financial condition of the country” are obtained as the most important factors. The identified factors will be explained and how the clustering of countries can help companies to extract valuable information from previous experiences will be discussed.

Project managers have started to draw support from IT solutions to handle projects, which are more complex than before. Therefore, most of the companies have been generating solutions specific to their need in addition to available software for general use. Any designed product/software requires a testing process not only to check that it is correctly working (verification), but also to secure that it is successfully serving for the intended purpose (validation). To ensure validity, new trend in software development has become early interaction of the possible users of the software to the development process to improve product quality. Early evaluations of the users provide detailed probing of the need that supports structuring the design, whereas latter evaluations serve as behavioral analysis of the developed software. Thus, user interaction for validation of software can be integrated to design process life cycle at any level of the process with different purposes and detail of evaluation. This study exemplifies validation study of a construction project portfolio management tool (COPPMAN), which is developed to support construction companies in adopting project portfolio centered management perspectives. Within evaluation studies of COPPMAN, three professionals from a construction company were assigned as a focus group and their evaluations were obtained through discussions and interviews at three main levels of the development process as; needs analysis, model generation, and beta testing. The current study mainly handles the beta testing process, where actual utilization of COPPMAN was made with a sample of nine real construction projects of the company. Evaluations made during and at the end of the process appreciate the potential value of COPPMAN in decisionmaking at top management level with its expected benefits in "strategic planning", "business development", "organizational learning" and "knowledge management". Suggestions for improvement of COPPMAN were also obtained as possible considerations for the forthcoming update. This validation process acts as a successful complementary to other validation testing processes undertaken in the development cycle (expert evaluation, pilot testing and usability testing) by providing a real environment(/in-house) evaluation as a trial of actual utilization of COPPMAN.

Purpose In the global construction industry, experience gained in various countries is a major source of competitive advantage. By transferring the knowledge gained in previous projects using an effective knowledge management strategy, they can increase their competitiveness by adopting best practices and by not repeating the same mistakes under similar conditions. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how similar countries can be clustered to facilitate learning in global markets. Design/methodology/approach Initially, country factors that can affect success in international projects and can be used to assess the similarity of markets were identified by an extensive literature review and prioritised by a web-based questionnaire. A country evaluation form was prepared to collect country-specific data to be used in the cluster analysis of 39 countries where the Turkish contractors have been frequently working since the last 45 years. Cluster analysis was performed with SPSS 23.0. Findings Three country clusters were obtained and validated. Ultimately, how obtained country clusters may be used to facilitate learning from international construction projects was demonstrated by using an illustrative example. Research limitations/implications The findings depend on the experience and perspective of Turkish contractors doing business abroad. Thus, the identified clusters are not generic. Moreover, country clusters were not identified considering only the country factors such as economy, culture, politics, etc.; thus, countries in the same cluster do not necessarily represent “similar” countries in terms of macro-factors. Clusters were identified so that the lessons learned can be effectively transferred within the same cluster considering construction and project-related factors as well as country-related factors. Although the findings cannot be generalised and clusters are not static, it is believed that the methodology used in this research is repeatable for different countries considering different timeframes. Originality/value Theoretical contributions include the identification of factors that can be used for similarity assessment of countries for transferring lessons learned as well as a methodology for clustering. Findings may also have a practical value for the Turkish contractors.