Enabling Knowledge Management strategy development in a lean-agile organization

Abstract

Opinnäytetyö käsittelee tietämyksenhallinnan roolia organisaatioissa ja esittelee tapaustutkimuksen, jonka avulla tietämyksenhallinnan strategian ja hallintaviitekehyksen kehittämisen tulisi olla mahdollista.

Knowledge has become a strategic resource for organizations and businesses. The knowledge possessed by the organizations reside in different forms; in tangible assets such as documents and in intangible assets such as skills or know-how. As any resource, also knowledge should be managed to ensure its efficient utilization. Due to the importance and different aspects of knowledge, long-term strategic planning and management actions will be needed in organizations to maintain the knowledge utilization capabilities.

The thesis presents a research aimed to enable the development of a knowledge management strategy and enhance utilization of the knowledge resources in an organization operating on a software industry. Research objectives included uncovering the key knowledge processing requirements in the organization and formulating proposals for high level knowledge management improvements. Together these actions and examination results were intended to form a baseline for knowledge management-related strategic planning in the organization.

The research included a series of interviews and document analysis as research methods to acquire information regarding the practical knowledge-related challenges and overall knowledge management situation in the organization. Content analysis method was used to analyze the research results. A knowledge management literature review was also carried out to support the thesis development proposal formulation.

The findings and conclusions resulting from the research led to define the means and focus areas for improved knowledge processing and knowledge management strategy development in the examined organization