Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Jamal El-Den and Xin Zhou
with <strong>the</strong> existing system. Accordingly, <strong>the</strong> ease <strong>of</strong> accessibility to <strong>the</strong> different past-experiences and
knowledge about <strong>the</strong> existing system will highly influence <strong>the</strong> successfulness <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> BPR process,
hence <strong>the</strong> to-be system. This knowledge is collected across functional departments from employees
and users within <strong>the</strong> organization, or external information <strong>of</strong> stakeholders such as customers,
suppliers and shareholders.
The current problem is how to make use <strong>of</strong> all <strong>the</strong>se needs which are in various data forms in order to
capture <strong>the</strong> valued knowledge required by <strong>the</strong> developers at each phase when needed. There are
some concepts and techniques in knowledge management which can highly assist in <strong>the</strong>se tasks,
namely, <strong>the</strong> externalization <strong>of</strong> tacit knowledge (articulation, capture, nurture, transformation and
retention). The knowledge within <strong>the</strong> organization is classified as tacit and explicit knowledge. Holding
<strong>the</strong> knowledge explicitly has a number <strong>of</strong> advantages (O’Hara & Shadbolt, 2001). As a result, it is
critical for organizations and businesses to turn <strong>the</strong>ir tacit wealth into explicit easily accessed realities.
The explicit knowledge is easily transferred from normal documents, database and even multimedia,
whereas, tacit knowledge is hard to articulate, capture transform, and retain unless it is transformed
into an explicit form.
Knowledge management is a suitable tool to capture and retain this tacit knowledge and improve,
enhance, and/or enable knowledge externalization contrary to <strong>the</strong> traditional fulfillment <strong>of</strong> activities in
o<strong>the</strong>r disciplines through <strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong> technology (EI-Den, 2008). Among <strong>the</strong> diversification <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong>
technology in knowledge management, <strong>the</strong> reliance on collaborative tools facilitates <strong>the</strong>
externalization <strong>of</strong> tacit knowledge. One <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> core tenets <strong>of</strong> knowledge management is <strong>the</strong> ability to
collaborate, including collaboration among employees within an organization, collaboration between
different organizations, and even collaboration between different computer systems without human
interaction (Luan & Serban, 2002). This is only possible through <strong>the</strong> organizational self development
<strong>of</strong> a collaborative system (Group-Support System), or <strong>the</strong> organizational outsourcing <strong>of</strong> this need.
An integral part <strong>of</strong> knowledge capture is <strong>the</strong> emphasis on human interaction and more and more
today on remote interaction among employees as a result <strong>of</strong> globalization. Accordingly, <strong>the</strong> existence
<strong>of</strong> a organizational collaborative group-support system is vital for <strong>the</strong> externalization <strong>of</strong> employees and
users knowledge. The pioneer <strong>of</strong> collaboration applications has been Lotus with its application Lotus
Notes launched in 1998. Since <strong>the</strong>n many products have been developed which provide users with
<strong>the</strong> ability to work collaboratively, any time, regardless <strong>of</strong> physical location (Luan & Serban, 2002).
The problems with <strong>the</strong>se systems and o<strong>the</strong>r existing group support systems, such as Wiki’s, Micros<strong>of</strong>t
groups, Google groups etc, is <strong>the</strong>ir inabilities to support <strong>the</strong> externalization <strong>of</strong> knowledge (El-Den,
2008).
3.2 Describe current business processes
As stated earlier, <strong>the</strong> past experiences and <strong>the</strong> knowledge <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> users about <strong>the</strong> legacy system are
essential for <strong>the</strong> effective and efficient development during <strong>the</strong> initial three phases <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> BPR life
cycle. This is due <strong>the</strong> fact that <strong>the</strong>y equip <strong>the</strong> developer with <strong>the</strong> necessary knowledge and better
understanding <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> system’ functionalities; who is doing what, how and how <strong>of</strong>ten.
The problem is <strong>the</strong> diversity <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> knowledge ga<strong>the</strong>red, as its origin could be from diverse users with
diverse and sometimes contradictory knowledge, know-how, expertise, and interpretation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
legacy system, especially at <strong>the</strong> operational level, and <strong>the</strong> decision <strong>of</strong> what <strong>of</strong> that knowledge is <strong>of</strong>
value to <strong>the</strong> developer is a real challenge. Accordingly, <strong>the</strong> process <strong>of</strong> externalization <strong>of</strong> such
knowledge will have considerable effect on <strong>the</strong> to-be processes. As a result, developing a Knowledge
Base (KB) is also integral to <strong>the</strong> overall process. This KB acts as a source <strong>of</strong> knowledge, know-how,
and expertise about functional processes within <strong>the</strong> organization. In many cases, it is essential that
<strong>the</strong> developer has <strong>the</strong> right piece <strong>of</strong> knowledge, functionality, and interaction <strong>of</strong> a particular process
with o<strong>the</strong>r processes within and outside <strong>the</strong> organization, accurately and on time.
During this phase <strong>the</strong> KB has to accommodate for:
1. Current processes’ execution.
2. Results <strong>of</strong> survey or interview with employees, managers, and senior management
3. Process in action. Faults, input, output, description, work-flow and procedures. In addition
external links <strong>of</strong> processes.
4. Lessons learned from competitors.
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