Obstacles to effective knowledge elicitation

Obstacles to Effective Knowledge Elicitation
Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic
Cohesion Consulting
1

Introduction
• When a proper Knowledge Management environment or
system is not explicitly established, promoted and maintained
within an organization, there is a natural belief among its
workers that only years of experience on the job can provide
someone with enough relevant knowledge to become credible,
effective or truly influential.
• Workers tend to hold these beliefs strongly primarily because
the knowledge they possess is “compiled” and often tacit to the
extent that they themselves may not have a clear insight into
how they put it to work or how they would properly
communicate it to the none-initiated.
Cohesion Consulting
2

Introduction
• While this can be true in some cases, it does not acknowledge
situations where individuals have mastered several effective
Knowledge Elicitation techniques that are applicable to a
variety of fields and situations.
• Knowledge Engineering, Systems thinking, Systems Analysis,
Systems Engineering and Business Analysis are examples of
disciplines that leverage heavily on Knowledge Elicitation skills
that are robust enough to remain applicable to several
professional areas.
• These skills enable the proper elicitation, assimilation,
organization and communication of complex information
much faster than what would be required if knowledge was
only acquired through years of field work.
Cohesion Consulting
3

Challenges Faced by Knowledge
Elicitation
• Perhaps the greatest challenge faced when
implementing Knowledge Engineering,
Systems thinking, Systems Analysis, Systems
Engineering and Business Analysis is that their
proper execution relies heavily on coordinated
collaboration involving domain experts from a
variety of positions and responsibilities who
may be initially skeptical about the true value
of such techniques.
Cohesion Consulting
4

Elicitation
• This kind of skepticism can be manifested
through:
– Resistance or lack of motivation for sincerely
engaging in collaborative efforts
– Information hiding or segregating
– Giving lesser priority to Knowledge Elicitation
activities
Cohesion Consulting
5

Elicitation
• Without sufficient buy in from those workers, individuals
responsible for conducting Knowledge Elicitation activities are
at a disadvantage and find themselves at the center of a self-
fulfilling prophecy.
• While there has been significant documentation of techniques
used in the execution of Knowledge Elicitation activities, we
are more interested in exploring factors that can significantly
mitigate the challenges raised by resistance to and
devaluation of Knowledge Elicitation professionals when they
find themselves in environment not receptive to the
significance of their contribution.
Cohesion Consulting
6

Factors facilitating the acceptance
of Knowledge Elicitation activities
• Knowledge Elicitation activities are better accepted when the
Domain Experts see them as opportunities to either:
– Organize their thoughts and knowledge for educational or training of
others [1 Moon et al.]
– Gaining more clarity on their own tacit knowledge [1]
– Respond to a mission critical need to identify important information
buried in a sea of routinely handled information [2]
– Increase the effectiveness of a team in its work environment by
capturing knowledge of importance and sharing it [3]
– Embrace the strategic value of transferring knowledge ownership from
the people employed by an organization to the Organization [4]
Cohesion Consulting
7

Knowledge Elicitation Value Proposition for
Organizations and their Domain Experts
• Proper organization and sharing of data,
information, and knowledge is a critical
component to the prevention or mitigation of
human errors responsible for poor system or
process reliability.
Cohesion Consulting
8

• Almost any system or process failure can be
traced to a root cause involving some type of
human error such as: [5]
– Use Studies or Use Cases
– Requirements Analysis
– Configuration Control
– Assumptions
– Calculations / Simulations
– Design
– Testing Scenario
– Statistical Analysis
Cohesion Consulting
9
– Manufacturing or Coding
– Quality Control
– Maintenance
– System Documentation or
Operation Manual
– Incorrect Feedback of
Information

• People are also the best alternative to identifying the
root causes of failures.
• People need proper assistance in the organization,
documentation, and timely communication of
pertinent and accurate information required to
achieve higher system and process reliability.
• Knowledge Elicitation activities aim precisely at
delivering this capability in a systematic manner.
Cohesion Consulting
10

• Recent research and industry results have been
published that address maximizing the effectiveness
of Knowledge Elicitation techniques based on specific
environmental conditions within the organization.
• This author strongly suggests reading the Paper by
Tatiana Gavrilova and Tatiana Andreeva titled
“Knowledge elicitation techniques in a knowledge
management context”.
Cohesion Consulting
11

• Of particular interest, their paper proposes the following
Taxonomy of knowledge elicitation techniques where the
Analyst and the Expert play different leading roles:
Cohesion Consulting
12
Leading Role Knowledge Elicitation
Techniques
Variations
Analyst Interviews Structured
Unstructured
Questionnaires Face to Face
E-Quiz
Expert Individual Focused Observation
Storytelling
Collective Round Table
Brainstorming
Expert and Analyst Role Games
Verbal Report

• Their paper also evaluates how appropriate each knowledge
elicitation technique is to 4 types of targeted Knowledge:
Cohesion Consulting
13
Elicitation
Technique
Tacit
Knowledge
Explicit
Knowledge
Individual
Knowledge
Group
Knowledge
Interview Low High High Low
Questionnaire N/A Medium Low Low
Observation Medium Low High Medium
Storytelling Low High High Medium
Round table N/A Medium Medium Medium
Brainstorming Medium High Medium Low
Role Game High Medium Medium High
Verbal Report Low High High Medium

Conclusion
• While the ultimate business benefit of proper
knowledge Elicitation has become obvious in our
highly complex and interconnected technological
world, human issues still undermine its acceptance
and effective application in routine business
activities.
• We hope that this presentation has provided some
supporting evidence to facilitate the introduction
and fostering of organizational roles responsible for
Knowledge Engineering, Systems thinking, Systems
Analysis, Systems Engineering and Business Analysis.
Cohesion Consulting
14

Cohesion Consulting
15
Contact Didier for more information on Knowledge Elicitation.
References:
[1] Brian M. Moon; Matthew H. Kelly. 2010.
LESSONS LEARNED IN KNOWLEDGE ELICITATION WITH NUCLEAR EXPERTS.
[2] Timothy Hanratty et al.
KNOWLEDGE ELICITATION TO PROTOTYPE THE VALUE OF INFORMATION.
[3] Barbara L. Bowen et al.
USING TEAM KNOWLEDGE ELICITATION AND CONCEPT MAPPING TO ENHANCE
ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS FOR A PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY.
[4] Tatiana Gavrilova and Tatiana Andreeva.
KNOWLEDGE ELICITATION TECHNIQUES IN A KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CONTEXT.
[5] Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_engineering#Reliability_culture

Obstacles to effective knowledge elicitation

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Obstacles to effective knowledge elicitation

Similar to Obstacles to effective knowledge elicitation (20)

More from Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting, LLC

More from Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting, LLC (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Obstacles to effective knowledge elicitation