Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

and Intranet sites of value. The Technologist watches over infrastructure support. As the
KnowledgeBase comes together, the Technologist ensures Utility employees can connect and
communicate through various media, providing them options and resources for collaboration.
When decisions are being made regarding the infrastructure, the Technologist is available to
relate technical issues to KnowledgeBase requirements. The role is best filled by a person who
knows the domain and is technically savvy.
The following products are developed as part of the knowledgebase:
1. Matrix of groupware functions that the community will focus on for its first release of the
KnowledgeBase
2. List of identified knowledge domain information (documents, presentations,
spreadsheets, etc.) that includes specific documents
3. List of folders used for organizing domain information
4. Graphical model and supporting narrative of "AS-IS" information flows between the
Utility community of practice and stakeholder organizations
5. List of community members and the folders that they have been assigned
6. Groupware electronic repository. Information will have been migrated to the groupware
application under the given folder structure
7. List of asset rules that ensures all groupware transactions are done in a manner
consistent across the community
8. Graphical model and supporting narrative of "TO-BE" information flows between the
community and stakeholder organizations. This would includes a list of business
performance measures and expected efficiencies from the KnowledgeBase (e.g., cycle
time = 8 weeks; goal is 2 week reduction).
The Key Tasks to develop a KnowledgeBase are the following. Each key task is first
introduced and then discussed in greater detail below.
1. Requirements: Map identified collaborative tool functions to business requirements to
simplify deployment, narrow training scope, and ensure more efficient use of the
groupware.
2. Inventory: Define knowledge assets in a business process context and identify whether
they will be created by the community or borrowed from other business owners.
3. Taxonomy: Develop a business context classification structure for organizing the
inventory of information. It should provide an intuitive navigation scheme for members of
the community and other interested stakeholders.
4. Flow Model: Model AS-IS business processes based on the flow of inventory assets to
and from customers. Focus on how assets are created and disseminated.
5. Migrate: Provide necessary technical support to migrate inventory assets that exist in
legacy repositories. Inventory should be organized, classified as relevant, and mapped
to a classification owner. Owners are typically subject matter experts from within the
Utility.
6. Map: Identify owners of the Inventory folders and designate life-cycle responsibility at a
folders structure level.
7. Asset Rules: Establish business rules for the use of the groupware to maintain
consistency while performing business transactions. Designate which groupware
functionality will be used to process specific transactions.
8. Transformation: Identify, in priority order, high value/low risk business processes that
provide the group with the highest value in terms of customer service, cycle time
C-62
©2011 Water Research Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.