## 5 The Proposed KM MCC Platform
### Web Application
#### 5.2.2 LL Database  
This is the core of the platform. The LL database uses BLOB storage to save multimedia from LL and uses SQL Azure databases to save these records. Thus, the LL database allows the storage,  
Figure 4: Screenshot from the LL form in the Web application.  
reuse, and transfer of knowledge created in the design and construction phases of a project as a formal process, avoiding the recurrence of mistakes. This system recognizes four types of users: a lesson creator, an approver, a consultant and a system manager, in order to achieve R8 and R9. The platform supports four main processes performed by these users on the database, as follows:  
1. Lesson creation As LL are the intellectual assets used to create value based on past experience [76], project managers must decide what project experiences have strategic or operational relevance and then ask a professional with the role of lesson creator to write the new lesson using the format defined by the authors [57]. Input from users showed that they were familiar with blog-like systems, so an interface of similar characteristics was chosen (consistently with R7 and R8), especially considering that the lack of time is an important constraint on storing knowledge (writing was maintained at the minimum required level, incorporating auto-completion and checkboxes, photos, videos, and audio when possible). Once the user has completed the LL form (for instance, using the web interface shown in Figure 4), he or she must send the newly created lesson for approval. As the context of the lesson is important for its later use, information regarding the project where the lesson was created is included, such as the project name and address, approvers, construction volume, price, project type, contract type, client type, starting date, duration, and end date.
2. Lesson approval (R6 and R9) Each new lesson has to be verified and approved by one or more approver users according to the process defined by each company. The platforms built-in process is shown in Figure 5. Lesson creators are typically on-site professionals and the lesson approver should be the project manager or someone designated by him/her. This process allows the review and improvement (if required) of a lesson. Also, it gives accountability and more credibility to the lessons included in the database and clarity about the roles and responsibilities of each actor in the KM process, in terms of the actions required and the time in which they should be performed (R9).  
In order to alert the users when they have to perform an action regarding this process, the platform sends them push notifications when appropriate. Only when a lesson completes this process without any comments is it published (R6). Optionally, and depending on the time available, the LL can receive a second seal of approval, but this time not from the project manager but from a supervisor or expert from head office. In both the first and second approvals, the lesson approver could send comments to the lesson creator with modifications that need to be made before the lesson is published, or they could just approve the lesson, as shown in Figure 6.  
Figure 5: Proposal for the approval process for lessons learned.