A Foundation of Enterprise Knowledge Development

Abstract

A foundation of enterprise knowledge development is provided, which is based on a new conception of knowledge and knowledge dynamics. This conception consists of a threedimensional model of knowledge with types, kinds and qualities. Built on this knowledge conception, knowledge dynamics is modeled with the help of general knowledge conversions between knowledge assets. Here knowledge dynamics is understood to cover all of acquisition, conversion, transfer, development and usage of knowledge. Through this conception we gain a sound basis for knowledge management and development in an enterprise. Especially the type dimension of knowledge, which categorizes knowledge according to its internality and externality with respect to the human being, is crucial for enterprise knowledge management and development, because knowledge should be made available by converting it to more external types. Two main categories of application scenarios for knowledge development in an enterprise are identified: constructive and analytic scenarios. In this paper we focus on constructive scenarios and describe an approach to model knowledge-intensive business processes in an enterprise, be it human-driven, knowledge-driven or task-driven processes. As an example for this approach, a model of the creative activity for the renewal planning of a product is given.