Ch. 4 of the CommonKADS textbook

1. Knowledge Management
The nature of KM
A process model for KM
KM and KE

2. Knowledge Management 2
What is knowledge
management?
■ Knowledge is seen as a resource
■ This means for knowledge management taking care
that the resource is
➤ delivered at the right time
➤ available at the right place
➤ present in the right shape
➤ satisfying the quality requirements
➤ obtained at the lowest possible costs
■ to be used in business processes

3. Knowledge Management 3
Why is knowledge management
different?
■ Due to specific properties of knowledge:
➤ intangible and difficult to measure
➤ volatility
➤ embodied in agents with wills
➤ not “consumed” in a process, can increase through use
➤ wide ranging organizational impacts
➤ long lead times
➤ non-rival, can be used by different processes at the same
time

4. Knowledge Management 4
Knowledge assets
Apply your
best knowledge
Construct new
knowledge
Value chain
Continuous improvement of
knowledge assets

5. Knowledge Management 5
Distribute
Create/change
ConsolidateCombine Application of
Knowledge
Assets
Organization and improvement
of care for knowledge

6. Knowledge Management 6
Modes of Knowledge
Management
■ Strategic:
➤ What are the general changes to the knowledge
infrastructure?
■ Operational:
➤ Organization the actual implementation and usage of the
knowledge infrastructure.

7. Knowledge Management 7
Levels in
knowledge management
Knowledge
management
level
Knowledge
object
level
K nowledge
assets
organizational
roles
business
processes
Organizational
goals
knowledge
as
a
resource
value
chain
K nowledge
management
actions
Report
experiences

8. Knowledge Management 8
Knowledge management cycle
R E F L E C T
identify
improvements
plan
changes
AC T
implement
changes
monitor
improvements
C ONC E PTUAL IZE
identify
knowledge
analyze
strength/
weaknesses

9. Knowledge Management 9
Knowledge object level
Organization
model
OM-­‐2:
people
&
structure
Agent
model::
AM-­‐1:
agent
descriptions
(software,
humans)
agents
knowledge
as s ets
bus ines s
proces s
participate
in
Organization
model:
OM-­‐4:
knowledge
assets
coarse
grained
description
form,
nature,
time,
location
Task
model:
TM-­‐2:
knowledge
bottlenecks
K nowledge
model:
knowledge
specification
fine-­‐grained
Organization
model
OM-­‐2:
overall
process
OM-­‐3:
process
tasks
Task
model:
TM-­‐1:
task
descriptions
possess requires

10. Knowledge Management 10
Four ambitions
(Source: Wiig on basis of Deming’s work)
Resources
Process
Every ambition requires specific actions
Products &
services Innovate
products &
services
1 2 3 4
Task
execution
Task
improvement
Improve
system
Use the
best
available
knowledge
Acquire
new
knowledge
Acquire
knowledge
about
- process
- working
environment
Acquire
knowledge
-customers
-markets
-technology
- competition

11. Knowledge Management 11
Conceptualize the knowledge
■ The Organizational Model is a good starting point for
creating a knowledge map.
■ The Task Model is a good starting point of charting
out where the knowledge is used.
■ The agent model is good for analyzing who owns the
knowledge and who uses it.
■ Knowledge items are central in KM.

12. Knowledge Management 12
Conceptualize: main activities
■ Inventarization of knowledge and organizational
context
■ Analysis of strong and weak points: the value of
knowledge
■ Should deliver insights which can be used in the next
step for defining of and deciding between
improvements

13. Knowledge Management 13
Reflect: bottleneck /
opportunity analysis
■ Can be done by using knowledge item descriptions,
generic bottleneck / opportunity types:
➤ time (only available during a limited period, queuing, delay)
➤ location (not available at the point where needed, delay and
communication, “many windows”)
➤ form (difficult to understand, translation processes,
reformulation of knowledge)
➤ nature (quality of knowledge, heuristic, standardization)
➤ stability (high rates of change, need to be up dated)
➤ current agents (vulnerability, carrier can/will leave, few
agents listed)
➤ use in processes (limited re-use, reinventing the wheel)
➤ proficiency levels (current agents not well skilled, opportunity
to “sell” knowledge)

14. Knowledge Management 14
Act: interventions
■ Management, human resources and culture
➤ Education and training
➤ Reward system
➤ Recruitment and selection
➤ Management behavior
■ Jobs & organizational structure
➤ Staff department knowledge and strategy
➤ Department lessons learned
➤ Introduction of a 'buddy' system
➤ Teams with overlapping knowledge areas
➤ Out sourcing
➤ Acquiring and selling organizations

15. Knowledge Management 15
Act: interventions (2)
■ (Technological) tools
➤ Intranets & internet for knowledge sharing & Lessons
learned architectures
➤ Groupware-based applications with ‘knowledge’ databases
(best practices)
➤ Decision Support Systems (expert systems, case
repositories, simulations)
➤ 'who knows what' guide (‘knowledge map’)
➤ Data mining
➤ Employee information system with knowledge profiling
➤ Document retrieval systems with advanced indexing &
retrieval mechanisms

16. Knowledge Management 16
Knowledge management &
knowledge engineering
■ Organization analysis feeds into knowledge
management (and vice versa)
■ Knowledge modeling provides techniques for
knowledge identification and development
■ Knowledge engineering focuses on common /
reusable elements in knowledge work