Knowledge assets in enterprise architecture

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Knowledge assets can be defined as anything that affects a business's disposition to act ondata received from the environment. Knowledge assets are embedded in the objects within anorganisation and are the source of an organisation's competitive advantage, by being closelylinked to what the organisation knows and by allowing the organisation to act and to beinnovative.Knowledge assets evolve over time as knowledge agents, through a process of sense making,substitute physical resources for informational resources by codifying and abstractingknowledge assets, in the process increasing their value and ability to be diffused to wideraudiences. These knowledge assets are internalised in an organisation and impact on theorganisation when they are applied to concrete problems.Knowledge assets play an important role in the creation of information assets in anorganisation. Information assets are created when a knowledge agent makes use of his or herknowledge to make sense of data received from sources in the environment. The creation ofinformation through the sense making process creates new knowledge which is added to theagent's knowledge base.Enterprise architecture is the process of designing future states for an organisation and thenplanning, leading and governing the organisation towards that future state. Enterprisearchitecture focuses mostly on the organisational process, on information and technology.Enterprise architects make use of enterprise architecture frameworks such as TOGAF or theZachman framework, which are primarily concerned with the domains of business,information and technology architecture, yet none of these mainstream frameworks used byenterprise architects takes knowledge assets into account, despite the obviously importantrole that they play in the organisation and especially in the information creation process.This research proposes to show that knowledge assets have an important role to play inenterprise architecture by allowing enterprise architects to• identify or facilitate the creation of knowledge assets pertaining to a specific problem;• understand whether information assets are located in the ordered and complex or thechaotic regimes and what would be the implication of moving them between regimes; • plot knowledge assets movements and relationships to each other on the social learningcycle path, which would enable enterprise architects to balance the types of learning thatthe organisation employs;• define the level of codification, abstraction and diffusion of knowledge assets, based onthe intended audiences and to understand where knowledge assets could be developed toimprove quality and when outdated knowledge should be destroyed in favour of newknowledge.Knowledge assets are related to Enterprise Business Architecture (EBA) through the specificknowledge domains that exist within an organisation. Understanding whether knowledgeassets exist in the ordered, complex or chaotic regimes will provide a more complete view ofthe organisation. Architecture of knowledge assets in this space will provide a betterunderstanding of an organisation's culture: this understanding can compensate for differencesin knowledge agents' spatio-temporal positions, how and when they receive data and theirparticular cognitive styles.The importance of knowledge assets in the creation of information links it emphatically withEnterprise Information Architecture (EIA). Knowledge asset architecture provides a betterunderstanding of how information is created and flows through an organisation, taking intoaccount the meaning of the information to the organisation, which compensates for thatoversight in information theory, which regards the accuracy of data that is communicated asthe only concern.Information technology has exponentially increased mankind's ability to codify, abstract anddiffuse knowledge assets. Enterprise Technical Architecture (ETA) is mainly concerned withthe technology infrastructure implemented within an organisation. Enterprise architects canapply knowledge asset architecture to decide whether the technology should be used toenhance the codification and abstraction of information, allowing more efficient diffusion ofinformation to a larger audience, or whether more concrete information should be diffused toa more closely-knit audience.This research will argue that the use of knowledge assets as a domain within enterprisearchitecture will greatly enhance the enterprise architect's ability to understand and lead theorganisation to a more desirable future state.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University