Knowledge-based flexible workflow to support decision follow-ups Carla Valle Fraunhofer FIT - Germany

Outline Introduction The problem The approach of this research Focus Methodology References

Decision Problem GoalPlan Strategic Planning Management Control Operational Control UnstructuredE-CommerceCarreer pathsGrievances Semi-structuredForecastingBudgetingAssignments StructuredDividendsPurchasingBilling Decision Types (Gorry and Scott Morton, 1971) (Balasubramanian, 1999)

Decision-making process Alternative Analysis Problem Recognition Problem Definition Alternative Generation Model Development Implementation Choice (Courtney, 2001)

The problem How can organizations improve the quality of their decision-making processes? Alternative Analysis Problem Recognition Problem Definition Alternative Generation Model Development Implementation Choice

The approach of this research Decision Implementation DocumentsTasks People ProcessesKnowledge

Why is it important? Some decisions are not implemented New decisions or sub-decisions are created There is no documentation about: The implementation process The relation between a decision and the deliverables created The communication exchange and its relation to the decision The lessons learned, considering what was successful and what was not

Propositions  Implicit Knowledge  Learning with past mistakes and successful stories can improve organizational practices, organizational learning and avoid recurrent mistakes;  Explicit Knowledge  Formalizing a decision implementation, using a workflow management system, allows planning, tracking and getting warning signals about problems, providing control over a decision implementation ;  Technological Support  The use of technology in organizing, storing and making available information and knowledge generated during a decision implementation can contribute to improve the quality of future decisions;

Organizational cycle after a decision is made Knowledge Repository Consultation Step 1:Decision made Step 2:Creation ofanexpected plan Step 3:Execution of a plan Step 4: Process Evaluation Possibilities of backward steps The knowledge repository exchange data at any step

System Architecture Workflow Mgmt. System reuse base of mini-processes related to the decisions events, documents, and stories Document Mgmt. Sytem knowlegde repository MEDIATOR USER INTERFACE

Components Workflow Adaptation of processes Reuse of processes Relation of processes to decisions-made Document Management System Documents Events Stories Relation of elements to decisions-made

Components Knowledge Repository Decision Meta-data Annotations User interface Based on user profile Mediator Components integration Knowledge Repository Management (input and output)

Contributions of the approach The integrated view Improve the quality of the process Track of a decision implementation Reuse base of mini-processes related to a decision Evaluation of the quality of a post-decision process Externalization of tacit knowledge

Comparison with other approaches Lotus: Lotus K-station – collaborative portal, create workspace, awareness and real-time chat, who is online, etc Lotus Discovery Server – expertise profiling and location, sophisticated cataloging and retrieval, comprehensive search, knowledge audits Microsoft: Tahoe - is designed to make generating and managing information easier, while providing a rich development environment for collaborative applications. Microsoft® Exchange 2000 Server - Uses the Microsoft Web Storage System and many new development features, such as Web Storage System events and forms, workflow engine, content indexing, and search folder. Xerox: Knowledge Broker (Grenoble) – is a software application that helps users look for information in multiple, often incompatible databases. Acting like agents, they search and present information. Knowledge Pump (Grenoble) – is a push methodoloy of sharing knowlegd. Users can join communities that share similar interests. They are connected to each other by a central knowledge repository and . DocuShare – Make knowledge and best practices available to everyone with DocuShare 2.2, the easy, secure, Web-based solution for managing knowledge.

Focus? The use of the system, among other systems people already use Domains Decision types Individuals, groups or organization Integration of different technologies Representations (Decision, Processes, Knowledge) It is related to organizational processes and changes (awareness, CHI, users motivation, collaboration) Knowledge Management goes much beyond technical problems, it involves a lot of social efforts (social impacts, cultural aspects) Mobile technologies

Methodology Revision of the literature Problem definition Proposal definition System development Evaluation Experiments Case studies Usability lab experiences to evaluate different parts of the system

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