Iknow conducts business requirements collection, analysis, and confirmation projects to identify clients’ top priorities for the types of knowledge that should be collected and managed, and the capabilities and tools that should be developed to support KM in the future. Some clients already have strong beliefs about these priorities, in which case the analysis is streamlined and focused on validating the set of initial requirements. In either situation, the business requirements analysis is a key input into the KM Strategy and Roadmap, and a key link between the organization’s overall business and market priorities and its KM goals.
Input for the Business Requirements Collection and Confirmation work is gathered mainly from internal client interviews and surveys. Iknow works with client management to select a representative cross-section of staff for in-depth interviews. Surveys may be used to gather opinions from a wider range of employees on some of the key topics identified. The interviews and surveys cover both the types of knowledge that should be prioritized for collection and the KM capabilities and tools that are most important for the organization and its strategic success. The combined results are analyzed to create a composite picture of KM development priorities. These might show, for example, the relative importance of different kinds of document capture versus knowledge sharing about people, projects, or events. They might also indicate whether users attach more importance to content browsing or free-form search; or how much they value online collaboration and social networking. The analysis also highlights differences in preferences between different levels of management, or different locations/business groups—all of which provide important pointers for the ultimate KM strategy and design.
Business Requirements Collection and Confirmation is often prepared in conjunction with the Technical Requirements Collection and Confirmation activity, which translates the business requirements into specifications for the design of the KM technical infrastructure and platform.
Iknow’s primary deliverable from this work is a Business Requirements Document that summarizes the organization’s priorities for KM content and capabilities development. Iknow often supplements this document with detailed interview summaries and survey compilations, providing a more detailed view of the source data. Other deliverables could include business use cases and business process and knowledge flow maps.
The Business Requirements Document is a key input into the KM Strategy, which defines the organization’s overall plan for knowledge management and how it will support business objectives, and the development of KM technical requirements.