This document discusses knowledge management and outlines a process model for knowledge management. It defines knowledge management as taking care of knowledge as a resource by ensuring it is available at the right time, place, and form to satisfy quality requirements at lowest cost for use in business processes. The document then describes different levels and cycles of knowledge management from conceptualizing knowledge to reflecting on bottlenecks and opportunities to acting with interventions.

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