Managing Information and Knowledge

A Proposal Methodology for Building an Integrated Model based on Information

Assets Identification

Carlos Alberto Malcher Bastos

, Ana Cristina Martins Bruno

, Anilton Salles Garcia

, Luiziana

Silveira de Rezende

1,3

, Marco Antonio Farah Caldas

Maria Luiza d´Almeida Sanchez

and Sergio José Mecena da Silva Filho

Laboratory of Information and Communication Technology Management (GTECCOM), Fluminense Federal University,

Praça Nilo Peçanha 19, Boa Viagem, Niterói, RJ, CEP 24210-260, Brazil

UFES, Av Fernando Ferrari s/n, Goiabeira, Vitória, ES, Brazil

PPGEngProd / Fluminense Federal University, Rua Passo da Pátria 156, Niterói, CEP 24210-240, Brazil

Keywords: Knowledge Management, Information Management, Information Asset.

Abstract: This paper aims to present and discuss a methodology for building an integrated model for information and

knowledge management, based on the identification of strategic information assets (IA). It begins with the

collection of best practices and benchmarks and the analysis of internal documentation, including the

organization mission and vision statements, to then identify strategic information assets that give business

support. During field visits and structured interviews for collecting information, information assets are

analyzed and partial formal models are then produced. Those models are gradually consolidated into an

integrated model. The adopted modelling techniques include: definition of business requirements;

development of business use cases and an information model; the representation of information flows; and

the identification of knowledge, skills and professionals. The ontology model is used to clarify concepts

definitions in this domain. The methodology includes current situation analysis (as is), identification of gaps

and the proposal of improvements, which are all reflected in the desired situation models (to be). Project

innovation lies, mainly, in the use of IAs and the combination of complex elements to build a unique model

that integrates information management and knowledge management components in the same framework.

1 INTRODUCTION

This paper aims to discuss a methodology for

building an integrated model of information

management (IM) and knowledge management

(KM), based on the identification of strategic

information assets and present its main components.

The model is being developed under the

technical cooperation project between the regulatory

authority for Brazilian overland transport sectors

(ANTT) and Fluminense Federal University (UFF),

through its Laboratory of Information and

Communication Technology Management

(GTECCOM). This ongoing project, initiated on

December 2010 and is scheduled to end on April

2014, and aims to identify relevant business

information assets and propose an integrated model

for IM and KM, which is able to provide elements

for manage strategic information and organizational

knowledge in a more efficient and effective way.

The content of the paper is organized as follows:

first, in Section 2 we present a review on

information assets (IA), information management

(IM) and knowledge management (KM),

considering that information and knowledge

concepts are complementary and mutually

supportive and that, therefore, an organization

strongly dependent on information, such as the

regulatory agencies, benefit from an integrated

model based on the identification of information

assets to consolidate IM and KM in an enterprise

architecture. Later, in Section 3 we discuss more

specifically the model characteristics, including the

main concepts that support its construction,

including contributions from different areas. In this

same Section the proposed methodology for the

520

Bastos C., Martins Bruno A., Salles Garcia A., Silveira de Rezende L., Antonio Farah Caldas M., dÁlmeida Sanchez M. and José Mecena da Silva Filho

S..

Managing Information and Knowledge - A Proposal Methodology for Building an Integrated Model based on Information Assets Identiﬁcation.

DOI: 10.5220/0004627305200525

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval and the International Conference on Knowledge

Management and Information Sharing (KMIS-2013), pages 520-525

ISBN: 978-989-8565-75-4

 2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

construction of the final integrated model is

discussed, based on information assets. Next, in

Section 4 we present a brief description of project

status and its main expected benefits. Finally, our

conclusions are presented in Section 5, including

future research possibilities.

2 INFORMATION ASSETS,

INFORMATION

MANAGEMENT AND

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

The information is vital for organizations and it is

one of the most valuable organizational assets and

raw material to provide and create new services. The

information is used to support daily work, helping

organizations to perform their duties and provide

their services properly (Caralli, Allen, Curtis, White

and Young, 2010). Being an important strategic

asset as important as people, capital and technology,

information, as other corporate assets, should be

managed so that it can be used and be available

when needed. (The National Archives, 2011;

Government of Alberta, 2003).

Increasingly, organizations around the world are

recognizing the value of their information assets

(IA). IA are defined as an identifiable collection of

data, stored in any manner, and recognized as having

value or potential value for the purpose of an

organization, enabling it to perform its business

functions, thereby satisfying a recognised

requirement (Higgins, Hebblethwaite and Chapman,

2006). IA, therefore, cover the resources that are or

should be managed in order to be easily accessible

as they represent potential future economic benefits.

(Information Access Development, 2012; Caralli et

al, 2010; Oppenheim, Stenson and Wilson, 2003;

Davenport and Prusak, 1998).

IA are not always easy to identify, it can be

complex and interrelated. To build the information

culture, it is needed to ensure that the organization

know and recognise its IA. (Higson and Waltho,

2009).

IM involves the planning and controlling of all

IA needed to meet corporate goals and to deliver

adequate services to society. It refers to the

application of consistent practices related to

planning, creation, capture or collection,

organization, use, accessibility, dissemination,

storage, protection and disposition of information.

The focus is on the management of how we work

with information content and how we optimize the

value of IAs (Government of Alberta, 2003).

Knowledge is also viewed as a capital asset of

economic value, a new strategic resource in

productivity enhancement (Van Berten and Ermine,

2006). KM is a systematic and explicit capture of the

individual or collective experience of an

organization to make it accessible to which this

experience is useful. Good ideas, regardless of

where they have been generated or located, can be

captured and transferred adequately to those who

have similar problems. KM involves maximizing the

value of information and converts it into knowledge,

leading to more robust decisions. KM allows

knowledge to be located, formalized, shared,

enriched and developed to stimulate innovation and

creation through a better productivity of knowledge

(Ermine, Boughzala and Tounkara, 2006). Good

information management needs to be partnered with

good knowledge management. If it isn´t, the value of

information as an asset is undermined, and efficient

service delivery is compromised (HM Government,

2008). KM involves a set of approaches to enable

information and knowledge to grow, flow and create

value in an organization. (Rao, 2005).

The establishment of an effective IM system,

therefore, is essential to perform KM. Li and Song

(2009) declare that knowledge and information have

mutually reinforced each other, which makes them

inseparable elements. The information-oriented IM

and KM based on knowledge sharing & use have a

close relationship. IM provides the basis of software

and hardware for KM. IM and KM are

complementary fields of study, as are, information

and knowledge, and therefore can support each other

and act as enablers of one another. For many

authors, KM involves the effective use of

information and IM is the key to support the creation

of knowledge and its application on organizations,

so that they act more intelligently. Good KM

associated with good IM is a priority for

organizations. And good IM is the foundation for the

implementation of good KM (Li and Song, 2009;

HM Government, 2008). Schiuma, Carlucci and

Sole (2012) discuss that information and knowledge

assets and their management represent essential

drivers for organizational value creation.

3 METHODOLOGY FOR

BUILDING AN INTEGRATED

MODEL OF IM AND KM

To build an IM and KM model, it is important to

ManagingInformationandKnowledge-AProposalMethodologyforBuildinganIntegratedModelbasedonInformation

AssetsIdentification

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start with a research in order to have a good

overview about the organization involved. Thus, a

broad representation of the organization is built from

information obtained in interviews with top

management, and also information taken from

readings of specific documentation related to the

performance of organization, as relevant legislation,

internal regiment, standards, as well as the

organizational mission and vision statements. The

purpose of this specification is to understand and

document the organization's objectives, interfaces

with the external environment, identifying its

subsystems and their main services involved. At this

stage of preparation, a management and references

model is also prepared. It is a unique reference

model, originated from the integration and

compatibility of other references, including classical,

specific and internal ones, which legitimize

organization´s duties consistent with its culture,

values and beliefs (Cardoso, Spiegel, Caulliraux and

Proença, 2008). This management model enables the

organization to identify other possible practices to be

adopted and also other IA that can be incorporated

into IM and KM model.

Based on the identification of IAs, surveys are

implemented in order to build models, making use of

an iterative approach. Each iteration has a set of

well-defined objectives and produces a partial model

of the final one, using as input the partial model of

the previous iteration to evolve and refine till get

integrated model for the entire organization.

Whenever possible, formal models are built, using a

specific tool for modelling (enterprise architecture)

that supports the integration of the models and its

future implementation. IM and KM model adopts

enterprise architecture concept in order to transform

business vision and strategies into effective changes.

Based on the current situation understanding we plan

what we desire for the future and establish the

necessary actions for change.

The IAs identified in the current situation (as is)

are the basis for the following surveys and

preparation of models, being one of the integrative

elements of IM and KM model. All IAs identified

are analyzed from a systemic view and a proposal

for structuring / restructuring them, necessary to

fulfil the business requirements can be incorporated

into the modelling of the desired situation (to be).

All proposals are discussed with representatives of

organization strategic areas.

IM and KM models represent a synthesis of the

results of various research fields: managing, R&D,

production engineering, systems and software

engineering, transportation engineering and

ontology. So, model integrates different knowledge

areas, which are traditionally presented separately in

the literature. To build IM model, the following

formal specific models are produced:

 A model of business requirements that

describes the services provided by the

organization and the logical model of

information (structural view information)

necessary for the performance of these

services. The use cases model defines business

requirements into an appropriate standard to

be met by the development of information

systems. And the information model

establishes the business objects (information)

to be managed by the relevant information

systems and specifies the need to share these

objects between systems (Benevides, 2010;

Larman, 2005; Kroll and Kruchten, 2003).

 A Map of Information Flow establishing, at a

high level, how the information is handled,

considering life cycle of information: we

analyze, for each information asset, the seven

stages taken by information: collection,

validation, processing, storage and retrieval,

distribution and spreading (Zack, 1999) and

gaps to be fulfilled are identified.

 Ontology Models are also used to structure the

Agency information for remove ambiguities,

inconsistencies and incompleteness; allow the

computer systems creation for decision

support using a semantic information basis

and define a glossary of terms specifying the

meaning and the relationship between them

(Guizzardi, 2005).

For IM model be successfully practiced it is

necessary to develop a set of information

management policies that include priorities policy of

meeting the demands, aligned with the organization's

strategic planning; development systems process;

and processes which ensure adherence to IM

models; security policy and information access and

identity management, respecting the access

requirements set out in requirements models and

information flow; systems integration policies

(including external systems); policies that ensure the

integration between IM and IT Management

components.

We emphasize the close relationship between IM

and IT Management. To enable the correct storage

and use of information is fundamental to get IT

support, a set of business support systems developed

and / or managed by IT that respects the component

models for IM. Moreover, it is necessary to establish

the dependencies of these various components.

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There is a strong dependency between KM

Models and information flow map. For building KM

model, formal models are produced:

 A knowledge model based on mapping skills,

knowledge and professionals, related to IAs

processing. Knowledge models identify the

forms of knowledge construction and

mobilization skills by professionals, relevant

to business processes and information flow.

KM Model map and represent knowledge /

skills / professionals (Bastos et al., 2011;

Rezende et al., 2012), analyze knowledge

flow, the steps of collecting and mobilizing

knowledge to generate innovation (Sabbag,

2007) and the processes of knowledge

conversion (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1997),

supporting the construction of an architecture

and propose tools and practices that may

support KM in the organization.

 The workflow construction of the current

situation, detailing the procedures used by

employees to conduct activities in the

processing of IAs, enables a better

understanding of the functioning of the

organization. We can identify gaps in

knowledge flow, associated to the steps of

capturing, mobilization and innovation, and

the processes of knowledge conversion

(Bastos et al., 2011; Rezende et al., 2012).

 A Knowledge Tree that allows visualize in a

hierarchical way all knowledge identified,

showing all expertise that can be shared (Lévy

and Authier, 1995).

KM, as IM, also needs to be aligned to the

strategic planning and governance policies of the

organization so that the deployed goals of the

strategic map can guide the process of converting

tacit knowledge into explicit and vice versa and the

continuous knowledge flow to achieve organization

mission. Based on the strategic plan and its

components, the organization defines its KM vision

and establishes the policies needed to achieve KM

goals. Policies will be unfold in guidelines that may

include five dimensions: a) organizational

intelligence b) intellectual capital management c)

change management, skills and talents; d) corporate

education, e) organizational learning. These can be

implemented in waves and gradually, facilitating

cultural change and new procedures adoption,

mainly those related to work and cooperative

learning, use of critical analysis in conducting the

activities, adoption of a creative attitude and

innovation.

Organizations that embark on KM

implementation must have a good understanding of

the context and the existing organizational culture,

to develop implementation strategies appropriate to

consider the specific needs of the organization

(Damodaran and Olphert, 2000). In the case of

public companies, knowledge of contextual factors

and, specially, the needs of the citizen and society

are critical success factors. Heisig (2009 as cited in

Batista, 2012) points as KM critical success factors:

human (culture, people, leadership), organizational

(process and structure), and technology

(infrastructure and applications) and management

processes (strategies, objectives and measurement).

Two models act as integrating elements of IM and

KM models: first, the ontology model, that defines

formally the manipulated information and semantic

processes, domains and functions, ensuring the

reliability of information and facilitating the

integration of knowledge. The modelling of each

domain is relevant because it formalizes the

information and treats them semantically to ensure

consistency, correctness and completeness. This

modelling enables the effective exchange of

information for different users, can be individuals,

workgroups or computer systems.

The second integrator element is the

improvement model. An evaluation of the current

situation status (as is) with the projection for the

desired situation (to be) in which the stages of

information life cycle, knowledge flow and

knowledge conversion processes are complete for all

IAs, leads to the proposition of improvements

recommendations, which are reflected in the desired

situation models (to be). The improvements model

contains recommendations that can be prioritized

and further implemented project by project,

especially those dealing with: a) the revision,

completeness, uniformity and restructuring of IAs;

b) the deployment of tools and techniques relating to

the information life cycle, knowledge flow and

knowledge conversion processes; c) development of

applications, tools and systems for IM and KM d)

training activities and organizational learning.

Studies have shown that KM systems cannot be

implemented unless they represent the potential to

be learned and understood by those involved. The

main barriers to KM include the lack of learning

opportunities. (Damodaran & Olphert, 2000).

According to Garvin (1993), learning organizations

are those that have five key skills: a) to solve

problems systematically, b) to experience, adopting

new approaches c) to learn from their own

experiences and history; d) to learn from the

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AssetsIdentification

523

experiences and best practices of others, and e) to

transfer knowledge quickly and efficiently

throughout the organization. Thus, methodology is

completed with the formulation and implementation

of training plans. Performance indicators are

established to monitor progress, feeding back the

model permanently.

The main distinguishing feature of the model is

to use a specific methodology that brings together

several theories, methods and tools in the areas of

IM and KM. The combination of complex elements

in an integrated model is the innovative element

resulting from this work is process.

4 PROJECT STATUS

The ongoing project started in December 2010 and

is its closure scheduled in April 2014. Eleven

Organizational Units will be modelled, which

comprise the main tasks of Agency regarding its

bylaw. Till now, the study was completed in six

Units, resulting in the delivery of partial models,

which are being gradually consolidated. The

Enterprise Architect (EA) has been used as a

modelling tool and model integration and as a way

of representing and understanding the current

situation and what is desired for the future.

At the end of the project, the following benefits

are expected: understanding of strategic IAs that

support business, its flows, structure and related

knowledge; identification of knowledge existed in

the agency and where they are located, in order to be

managed and integrated; adoption of conversion

processes and knowledge creation, leading to

exploitation of new knowledge; more efficient

communication forms; development of new learning

practices; creation of communities of practice for

structuring the experiences of individuals and teams,

contributing for construct an environment for the

emergence of new ideas and solutions, making

knowledge accessible and focused; availability of

tools for decision making support and intelligence in

regulation and oversight on transport, with inputs for

effective governance, leading to critical analysis of

the available information and the regulatory process

more efficient, information integrated system and

reliable information for decision making; definition

of a glossary of terms specifying the meaning and

relationship between them, allowed the retrieval of

unstructured information, based on semantic, basis

for the development of decision support systems;

contribution to the culture of treatment and

dissemination of information and knowledge, with

agility, transparency and reliability.

5 CONCLUSIONS

This paper discussed a methodology for building an

integrated model of information management (IM)

and knowledge management (KM).

Based on the concepts that support IM and KM,

it was aimed to discuss that: information and

knowledge are complementary and mutually

supportive; IM is the foundation for KM; IM and

KM models can be constructed based on strategic

IAs identification; and ontology models and

improvements model can be used as integrative

elements of IM and KM integrated model.

IM and KM integrated model characteristics

were presented, as well as the building methodology.

The project raises research questions, which can

be exploited to be answered: how to better integrate

the different models constructed; exploitation of

those areas that are essential to IM and KM and

must work together in order to enhance IM and KM

models; measurement of IAs value and importance;

IM and KM maturity models; and also development

of a management framework that can be used to

automate models and support decision making.

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