CSCL - CS KnowledgeBase

CS KB
Product
Information




	Introducing the CS KnowledgeBase
	CS/10,000 is a comprehensive process management environment that supports the use of multiple "knowledgebases". A knowledgebase is a collection of processes, rules, factors, document templates and architecture templates that contains the aggregated and structured know-how of its authors. Because CS/10,000 supports the use of one or more knowledge bases, it is possible to enhance the product at anytime by adding on a new knowledge base. CS/10,000 utilizes a facility known as the "Expert Advisors" to provide a friendly expert system-based user interface to the underlying knowledgebases. Each knowledgebase can support a completely unique set of Expert Advisors. A knowledgebase can also share its advisors with other knowledgebases. It "plugs" into CS/10,000 and provides a new set of Expert Advisors as well as new knowledge content: processes, rules, factors, document templates and architecture templates. The primary benefit of the CS KnowledgeBase is the ability to access this "fresh" collection of system development knowledge content, with the most recent updates by CSCL's knowledge engineers.

	Using the Knowledgebase - Advisor Link
	In CS/10,000, there is an implicit link between the expert advisors and the underlying knowledgebases which they access. CS/10,000 is very flexible in this structure, in that any number of kb's and advisors can be added to the system. In its most simple implementation, a knowledgebase has six unique expert advisors that access its repository. But in fact, a kb can consist of more than six advisors and advisors can even be shared with other kb's. This complexity is completely hidden from you as a user of CS/10,000. By simply selecting a template to start your project, a knowledgebase is automatically selected for you. Unless you have purchased or built an additional knowledgebase, this will always result in the selection of the default kb. If you select the CSCL SuperProject as your project template, then you will be guided by the default expert advisors from the default kb. If, on the other hand, you select the 05 SuperProject as your project template, then you will be guided by the advisors from the 05 KnowledgeBase product. The 05 KnowledgeBase contains 4 new expert advisors and it shares 2 expert advisors with the default knowledgebase. The interaction of knowledgebases and advisors in the default knowledgebase and the CS KnowledgeBase is shown below.


	Benefits of the CS KnowledgeBase
	The Knowledge Engineering that was applied to the construction of the CS KnowledgeBase concentrates on six specific areas: Data Warehousing, Internet/Intranet, Object Oriented Design and Development, Online Transaction Processing (OLTP), Standard Client/Server Development and software process quality improvement. In each of these areas, extensive work was done to supply process support that will apply to projects of all scopes. Because the CS KnowledgeBase plugs directly into an existing CS/10,000 installation, it is possible to add these processes into an active process management environment with minimal disruption. Furthermore, the education that users of the CS/10,000 will gain when they are able to understand how to switch between the default knowledgebase and the CS KnowledgeBase will enable organizations to begin planning their own in-house knowledgebases. Truly the most daunting hurdle confronting all organizations is the challenge of staying on top of the technology curve. Perhaps this is not really possible anymore. But what is possible is to capture the tacit knowledge in a corporation and ensure that it is not lost when the bearers of that knowledge move onto other departments, retirement, or to a competitor's shop floor. This is done very easily via CS/10,000's knowledge-capture mechanisms for building and enhancing knowledgebases.

	The Knowledge Management Lifecycle
	The knowledge management lifecycle begins with the chaotic flood of information that always exists in "Information Space". Today's Information Space consists of the Internet, trade shows, trade magazines, technical seminars, technical books, etc. Experts enter into this space, and bring with them knowledge about which aspects of this information are of interest to their organization. They extract this information and bring it to the organization as a collection of strategies, best practices and standard methods. This information is typically stored "in someone's head", but is also frequently found in documents, e-mail, and other organizational memoranda. From an organization's unordered collection of strategies, best practices, and standard methods, the next step is to formalize this gold mine of information into generic and reusable processes with generic and reusable work products. The processes must be general-purpose and reusable, so that they can be optimized for specific projects with particular usage scenarios. This process is known as "Knowledge Engineering" and is easily accomplished using CS/10,000's process management toolsets. The core of Knowledge Engineering is the organization of processes into "process templates". A process template encompasses a specific aspect of an organization's knowledge, such as "Data Warehousing", or "Internet Development", or "Business Process Reengineering". A collection of process templates can be defined as the Organizational Knowledge Base. Once an organization has a robust collection of process templates that are appropriate to their environment and to their business, they have created an effective Knowledge Base. With a Knowledge Base, accomplishing specific projects is greatly simplified. When a project is defined, the specific processes appropriate for that project can be extracted from the Knowledge Base. This can be done by selecting the appropriate template. After the appropriate process template has been agreed upon, the individual processes within the template need to be reviewed, modified as necessary, serialized, scheduled, and approved before an actual project begins. The accomplishment of this process results in a project plan based on the organizational Knowledge Base. By working in this manner, project plans are produced much more quickly and with far greater completeness than by other methods. CS/10,000 provides a Task Advisor and Estimation Advisor which use expert systems and neural networks to automate the process of converting a process template into a fully estimated project plan. During the project itself, a tremendous amount of knowledge is gained. New strategies, methods, and best practices are devised under the pressure of the actual project. Further, the errors, omissions and "fat" in the project plan are revealed. As knowledge and insights are gained "in the field", a common tendency is to continue forward without taking time to document the lessons learned. However, without a facility to capture the lessons learned and a directive to utilize such a facility, some of the most valuable organizational knowledge will be lost, or, at best, confined to the domain of the specific people who worked on the project. CS/10,000 provides tools to capture lessons learned in the project environment. If the directive is established, then managers, designers and developers will record their ideas for process improvements directly in CS/10,000. These improvements are then saved as a new CS/10,000 template within the current Knowledge Base.

	The Knowledge Management Lifecycle


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