Intranet Facilitated Knowledge Management: A Theory and Tool for Defining Situational Methods

The methodical support of large systems development efforts is still problematic, due to the cumbersome access to paper manuals, the lack of modification capabilities, and the inflexible standard project structures. This paper presents a case in which a tool based on intranet technology is used to facilitate the management of systems development knowledge acquired in an empirical research project on situational method definition. A fundamental theory for situational method definition, called the S 4 model, has been developed and validated. The S 4 model expresses the argumented dependencies of the Situation factors that determine the Succes of a project, to which is contributed by Scenario aspects, that yield a Situational method. This systems development knowledge and experience was captured and recorded according to the ASSUME (Acquisition, Structuring, Storage, Utilization and Maintenance of Expertise) approach for knowledge management. The knowledge acquisition exercise took place in three large organizations for information systems development involving 43 experienced project managers. The collected results of the empirical work'were filled in the Mouseion tool, an intranet application with hypermedia facilities (WWW, tip, newsgroups and search engines) for situational method support to systems development.