Overview of the Knowledge Management System in ESA/ESOC

Paper number

IAC-07-D5.1.02

Author

Mrs. Roberta Mugellesi Dow, European Space Agency/ESOC, Germany

Year

2007

Abstract

The strategic importance of knowledge management has been recognized in ESOC and a project is currently on going aiming to integrate knowledge management techniques and practices in the working environment. The objective of this paper is to describe the status of the implementation of the system, to provide significant results and indicate possible future steps. 

In the first phase of the project, an inventory of knowledge fields has been built based on the technical domains existing in ESOC, and now this inventory needs to be verified through a knowledge audit in the different areas. For this purpose it has been decided to run a pilot project in a specific domain to validate this methodology before extending it to all areas in ESOC. In parallel an analysis of the tools and technologies existing in the area of knowledge management has been carried out to assess the coverage of the gaps which have been identified. The method which has been implemented consisted in establishing a standard method and procedures for the management of the knowledge – comparable to other standards already established for the acknowledged resources. It relies on the concept of knowledge audit as the way to verify the expected knowledge fields in each specific ESOC technical domain.

The paper will report in particular the experience of the knowledge audit in ESOC as the methodology for capturing the knowledge. A knowledge audit model has been developed and consisted of three phases: the pre-audit phase, the auditing procedure and the post-audit phase. Major activities during the pre-audit phase includes providing information of the KM audit to the involved people, delivering the inventory of the division‘s knowledge fields, involving the people and ensuring the audit is co-ordinated properly, and identifying the vital knowledge resources for the audit. During the auditing procedure dedicated interviews with selected experts from each knowledge field were conducted and the knowledge flows were especially evaluated. In the post-audit phase, the consolidated results of the survey and expert interviews were collected together with a view of the expected evolution of the knowledge fields relevant for each business unit. One important outcome of the audit was also the recommendation of a  set of potential measures, taking into account the strategic aspects and targets, to close the knowledge gaps which were identified during the audit..

The paper concludes indicating possible future steps for the knowledge management system especially in the area of harmonization within ESA and outside with other international networks of knowledge management in the space domain.

Abstract document

IAC-07-D5.1.02.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-07-D5.1.02.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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