Enterprise Knowledge Portals: Enterprise Knowledge Portals: What They Are and What They Do What They Are and What They Do
Joseph M. Firestone · 2000
Problems and Solutions in the EnterpriseIT applications are purposeful. They support and partially automate humanparticipation in business processes. Portals are no different. So let’s talkbusiness processes and knowledge processes before we talk knowledge portals.Every individual, team, or group within the enterprise encounters problems in thecourse of the workday. Every problem has alternative solutions. And everyalternative solution is subject to criticism and to replacement if it performs lesswell than its competitors. The best problem solution is the competitive alternativethat best survives criticism.The Enterprise is a continuous, dynamic “swirl” of problem-solving knowledge-related Interactions from which knowledge is produced and integrated with thebusiness processes of the enterprise. For a given problem generated by abusiness process, it is useful to abstract from the swirl and to conceptualize aniteration of a knowledge life cycle encompassing knowledge processes targetedon solving that problem. But before getting to such a knowledge life cycle model,we need to begin with the general concept of a business process of which bothknowledge and knowledge management processes are sub-typesBusiness ProcessesFigure One specifies the idea that any business process (including knowledgeand knowledge management processes) may be viewed as a network of linkedactivities governed by validated rule sets, or knowledge. A linked sequence ofactivities performed by one or more agents sharing at least one objective is aTask. A linked, but not necessarily sequential set of tasks governed by validatedrule sets, producing results of measurable value to the agent or agentsperforming the tasks, is a Task Pattern. A cluster of task patterns, not necessarilyperformed sequentially, often performed iteratively and incrementally, is a TaskCluster. Finally, a hierarchical network of interrelated, purposive, activities ofintelligent agents that transforms inputs into valued outcomes, a cluster of taskclusters, is a business process.