An ontology-based knowledge management prototype supporting decision-making in technology appraisal

Since decisions concerning technology appraisal are of strategic importance to organizations, issues involved are complex and the nature of the decision is difficult to be captured and reused for future decisions in the changing technology selection environment. The proposed knowledge management framework addresses the technology selection and appraisal problem through an ontology-based approach that captures and makes reusable the equipment purchasing process. This approach enhances and empowers existing knowledge reuse by allowing users to navigate into the underlying knowledge of the selection and appraisal application domain. Furthermore, a real case-study from the industry is presented to illustrate the proposed technique.