Competence Visualizer: A Knowledge Management System Generating Competence Patterns of Organizational Groups

In recent years, knowledge management systems (KMsystems) for handling organizational knowledge have been the subject of sizeable interest within the research fields of CSCW and IS. However, information technology (IT) for managing competence has been debated less extensively. This paper describes and evaluates the design of Competence Visualizer (CV), which is a KM-system generating competence patterns of organizational groups. The motivation for doing this is to improve the general design of KM-systems for managing competence, and thereby contribute to the existing body of research within the fields of CSCW and IS. The three main conclusions are: First, the CV system supports fields of application such as competence planning, managing expertise, market analyses and competence evaluation; Secondly, future design challenges regarding the CV system are functions for handling information about competence levels, competence mixes and the organization’s strategic business goals; Thirdly, organizational issues critical for the CV system’s data quality are incentives, routines, responsibilities and management.