Estimating Benefits of Knowledge Management

Estimating Benefits of Knowledge

Management Initiatives: Concepts,

Methodology, and Tools

Joseph M. Firestone, Ph.D.

Knowledge Management Benefits and Corporate Goals

How are various claimed Knowledge Management (KM) benefits related to

corporate goals, business processes, and to IT applications? Most discussions of

KM benefits and, for that matter, of benefits of other alternatives to KM, are not

tightly coupled to corporate goals and business processes [1]. In the KM

literature the discussion of benefits thus far has not approached a systematic

analysis of corporate goals, objectives and benefits in the context of KM

alternatives.

Instead, in most analyses there is an ad hoc listing of envisioned outcomes or

effects of the introduction of KM initiatives and an assertion that these outcomes

are unequivocal benefits. The approach is basically intuitive rather than analytical

and comprehensive. It doesn’t clarify the relationship of the claimed or

envisioned outcomes to corporate goals or business processes. And it often

doesn’t distinguish the outcomes in terms of the degree of benefit they provide.

This paper presents concepts, methodology and tools for producing improved

KM benefit estimates. My objective is to provide a framework for thinking about

more comprehensive estimation of KM benefits -- estimation that is tightly

coupled to corporate goals, and that distinguishes benefits according to their

relative importance. I will not propose a specific methodology for estimation in all

situations, because, as we will see, no single methodology is appropriate for

every corporate situation. Comprehensive benefit estimation is not practical in

many situations. While, in others, varying degrees of comprehensiveness will be

appropriate.

Instead of a single methodology, I will define an abstract pattern of

Comprehensive Benefit Estimation (CBE) that would, if implemented, achieve the

goal of tight coupling of benefits, goals, and...