A Closer Look at Concept Map Collaborative Creation in Product Lifecycle Management

One of the greatest challenges of effectively managing knowledge in an organization is promoting seamless connections of operations between departments. Historically, information systems supporting operations have been developed with a specific department's culture in background. Therefore, connecting data, information systems, and people across the product lifecycle is an ongoing puzzle for organizations. Theorists and practicians agree on the need to include employees' expertise and vision in this process. This chapter explores a tacit knowledge capture tool and a methodology to use it as a means to voice the interaction and negotiation among employees to support KM and IT strategy and development choices. Concept maps collaborative creation can provide a usability tool focused on meaning throughout the product lifecycle. A literature review of the challenges involved and of the proposed tool is presented, followed by a use case and the methodology for the concept map collaborative creation session, concluded with recommendations drawn from theory and practice.