Capability Maturity

Abstract

The dependence of any organization on knowledge management is clearly understood. Actually, we should distinguish between knowledge management (KM) and knowledge engineering (KE): KM is to define and support organizational structure, allocate personnel to tasks, and monitor knowledge engineering activities; KE is concerned with technical matters, such as tools for knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation, and data mining. We shall use the designation KMKE for knowledge management and knowledge engineering collectively. KM is a very young area—the three articles termed “classic works” in Morey, Maybury, and Thuraisingham (2000) date from 1990, 1995, and 1996, respectively. We could regard 1991 as the start of institutionalized KM. This is when the Skandia AFS insurance company appointed a director of intellectual capital. KE has a longer history—expert systems have been in place for many years. Because of its recent origin, KMKE is characterized by rapid change. To deal with the change, we need to come to a good understanding of the nature of KMKE.