Problem, Opportunity, and Feasibility Analysis for Knowledge Management: An Industrial Case Study,

Understanding and properly dealing with the wider organizational context is a critical success factor for knowledge systems and other knowledge management measures. We present a set of practical techniques, based upon and extending the CommonKADS methodology, for knowledge-oriented organization and business task analysis. The discussed techniques help to identify knowledge bottlenecks and opportunities within the organization, and assess the economic, technical and project feasibility of possible knowledge-management solutions such as knowledge systems. This approach supports managerial decision-making, by upfront generation of relevant business-case information on whether it is feasible to start a systems development project, and it avoids the technology-driven character of so many IT projects. Our approach is illustrated by an industrial case study concerning knowledge improvement strategies in ice-cream product design carried out within the Unilever company.

[1]  Michael I. Harrison,et al.  Diagnosing Organizations: Methods, Models, and Processes , 1987 .

[2]  Edward Yourdon,et al.  Modern structured analysis , 1989 .

[3]  Peter Checkland,et al.  Soft Systems Methodology in Action , 1990 .

[4]  James E. Rumbaugh,et al.  Object-Oriented Modelling and Design , 1991 .

[5]  Bob J. Wielinga,et al.  KADS: a modelling approach to knowledge engineering , 1992 .

[6]  Barry Kirwan,et al.  A Guide To Task Analysis: The Task Analysis Working Group , 1992 .

[7]  William J. Kettinger,et al.  BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING: Building a Comprehensive Methodology , 1993 .

[8]  Gregory H Watson,et al.  Business systems engineering , 1994 .

[9]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Knowledge Creating Company , 2008 .

[10]  Carolien Metselaar,et al.  The commonKADS organization model: Content, usage and computer support , 1996 .

[11]  Mcdp Mathieu Weggeman.  Knowledge management: the modus operandi for a learning organization , 1996 .

[12]  Guus Schreiber,et al.  Methods and techniques for knowledge management: What has knowledge engineering to offer? , 1997 .

[13]  Hans-Erik Eriksson,et al.  UML toolkit , 1997 .

[14]  Bob J. Wielinga,et al.  Organizational Modeling in CommonKADS: The Emergency Medical Service , 1997, IEEE Expert.

[15]  Shirley Fletcher.  Analysing competence : tools and techniques for analysing jobs, roles and functions , 1997 .

[16]  Daniel Andriessen,et al.  Value-based knowledge management , 1998 .

[17]  Nigel Shadbolt,et al.  Knowledge Engineering and Management , 2000 .