MATURE Deliverable 1. - Knowledge Maturing

42
Figure 12: Observed changes in knowledge maturity
In the following all maturing stories will be described with respect to their mapping to the knowledge
maturing process. Especially commonalities of stories describing similar changes in knowledge maturity
are focussed. More detailed information can be found in table 28 up to table 31 (see section 8.7.4).
Intra-phase-maturing
Two stories (Gisa 1 and Synaxon 2) describe maturing within phase II (distributing in communities). In
both cases a subject is discussed within a community. A clarified and common understanding of the
discussed topic represents the outcome of in either case. The outcome of the discussion was not
documented and hence not formalized in any way.
One story (Kent 1) depicts maturing within phase III (formalizing). An identified risk going along with an
already existing and formalized process is reduced through the creation of additional guidelines that were
also formalized. This led to an improved and more mature process.
Another story (SKK) reports on maturing within phase V (standardization). The starting point of this
story is an already standardized process. This process was enhanced through the introduction of one
additional task. As a result of the enhancement, the process was standardized again and increased in its
maturity.
Inter-phase-maturing
Kent 2, Swisscom 1, Synaxon 1 and Synaxon 3 are stories that describe changes spanning the phases II
(distributing in communities) and III (formalizing). All four cases include a subject that is discussed in a
group. Additionally the result of the group discussion is formalized, e.g., as meeting minutes or
presentation slides.
The stories Gisa 2 and STRUC report on changes that span the phases III (formalizing) and IV (ad-hoc
training). Both describe the improvement of existing formalized contents, which results in didactically
refined training material.
In story Swisscom 2 a recognized change in knowledge maturity is described that spans phases Ib
(appropriating ideas) and III (formalizing). The first observed step of this story is the idea posted by a
project manager. The project manager directly assigned the task to implement the idea to an employee. As
no discussion within a community was observed, this story directly results in formalized knowledge
represented by intranet contents.
Summary
Phase Ia was not covered be any reported stories. One reason of this is that this phase mostly takes place
on a personal level and hence is not directly observable. Due to these difficulties in observing changes in
maturity related to phase I, an investigation on an individual level within the representative study is
needed. This data should be used to enrich the development of the PLME. Phase V was only observed in
one single story. Most changes in knowledge maturity were observed in phases II, III and IV. Four stories