The user oriented knowledge management method : a knowledge management method for a small organization with a distributed environment.

Knowledge plays an increasingly important role in business these days and thus most organizations have already begun, or are considering some level of knowledge management. This thesis describes a model for knowledge management for a small organization with a distributed environment like Seven Stars, with the focus on the Dot Net professionals. The approach is applied within Seven Stars and evaluated. The first step has been the study of today’s knowledge management methods. There is evaluated where most of these knowledge management methods fail and how to overcome this failure. This results in advice to use a simple to use knowledge management method which has less focus on the technology and more on the user. In order to overcome the failing derived from the study of today’s knowledge management methods a new knowledge management method is designed based on this advice. This newly introduced knowledge management method, the User Oriented Knowledge Management Method, consists of today’s knowledge management methods base components combined with building blocks from the User-Centered Design (UCD) method. The focus of the User Oriented Knowledge Management Method lies on user involvement and infrastructure to create a knowledge environment that supports the business strategy. It consists of three phases: 1 Initial Information Gathering phase which gains information and understanding with the emphasis on knowledge. This information and understanding is used to create a simple design. 2 Prototyping phase creates a pilot application based on the simple. This application is evolves with every iteration where the application is evaluated by the users and based on this evaluation altered. 3 Installation phase which introduces the resulting system to all users. The User Oriented Knowledge Management Method is put to practice at the organization Seven Stars. Based on interviews with the users, analyzing the infrastructure and business goal of the Initial Information Gathering phase is concluded that it is important that the professionals accomplish their tasks but that also the tacit knowledge needed for this is sometimes hard to gain. Based on the information gained from the Initial Information Gathering phase a prototype is created and iteratively developed to a real useful and likely to be used solution. During the third iteration the project came to a hold because an organizational wish could not be applied to the prototype. The organization must take a business decision about this. Although the User Oriented Knowledge Management Method takes the users at multiple steps into account and the users were enthusiastic and cooperative it must be put more into practice to conclude if the method is a success or not.