INF5190 Concepts and Principles in Knowledge Management
UNIVERSITY OF OSLO
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural
Sciences
INF5190 – Concepts and Principles in
Knowledge Management
Spring 2006
Applying Knowledge Management for
improving software lifecycle processes in
the Norwegian Tax Administration
Written by:
Petter Øgland
Hani Murad
Sturla Bakke
Anne Anne Berge Bjørnseth
Delivered: 12.05.06
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INF5190 Concepts and Principles in Knowledge Management
Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Introduction ................................................................................................................. 4
Theory ......................................................................................................................... 5
2.1
Two types of knowledge? ................................................................................... 5
2.2
Value configurations and Opera ......................................................................... 9
2.2.1
Value chain ................................................................................................. 9
2.2.2
Value shop ................................................................................................ 10
2.2.3
Value network ........................................................................................... 10
2.3
The configurations and Mintzberg ...................................................................... 8
2.4
KM processes .................................................................................................... 11
2.4.1
Knowledge worker .................................................................................... 11
2.4.2
Knowledge generation .............................................................................. 12
2.4.3
Knowledge codification ............................................................................ 13
2.4.4
Knowledge transfer ................................................................................... 13
2.4.5
Organizational culture ............................................................................... 14
Method ...................................................................................................................... 15
3.1
Interview ........................................................................................................... 15
3.2
Text analysis ..................................................................................................... 15
Case ........................................................................................................................... 16
4.1
Opera’s history .................................................................................................. 16
4.2
Opera’s product lines ........................................................................................ 16
4.3
W3C standards .................................................................................................. 17
Analysis..................................................................................................................... 18
5.1
Opera and the three value configurations ......................................................... 18
5.2
KM processes in Opera ..................................................................................... 19
5.2.1
Knowledge generation .............................................................................. 19
5.2.2
Knowledge codification ............................................................................ 20
5.2.3
Mechanisms of knowledge transfer .......................................................... 20
Discussion ................................................................................................................. 22
6.1
Knowledge generation ...................................................................................... 22
6.1.1
Basic factors for acquisition...................................................................... 22
6.1.2
Dedicated resources .................................................................................. 23
6.1.3
Fusion ........................................................................................................ 24
6.1.4
Adaptation ................................................................................................. 24
6.1.5
Knowledge networking ............................................................................. 24
6.2
Knowledge codification .................................................................................... 25
6.2.1
The preservation-level of Opera’s knowledge sources ............................. 25
6.2.2
Knowledge map ........................................................................................ 25
6.3
Knowledge transfer ........................................................................................... 26
6.3.1
Socialization.............................................................................................. 26
6.3.2
Internalization ........................................................................................... 26
6.3.3
Externalization .......................................................................................... 27
6.3.4
Combination.............................................................................................. 27
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 28
References ................................................................................................................. 29
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INF5190 Concepts and Principles in Knowledge Management
List of Figures
Figure 1 – Illustration of Value chain ................................................................................. 9
Figure 2 - Illustration of value shop .................................................................................. 10
Figure 3 – Illustration of value network ........................................................................... 11
Figure 4 - Organization chart of Opera ............................................................................. 16
List of Tables
Table 1 – Nonaka’s model of knowledge conversion ....................................................... 13
Table 2 - Product lines of Opera ....................................................................................... 17
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INF5190 Concepts and Principles in Knowledge Management
1 Introduction
The report is written as part of the assessment in INF5190 – “Concepts and Principles in
Knowledge Management”. The project group has chosen to look at the software lifecycle
for one of the major processes at the Norwegian Tax Adminisration, namely the selfdeclaration process for private citizents. The report’s primary focus is to investigate to
which extent the concepts of Knowledge Management (KM) can give insights on the
software lifecycle model, and how such insights may be used for process improvement.
Firstly, all theoretical topics of KM are summarized within the context of process
improvement to make sure the reader gets an understanding of central keywords used
throughout the report. It also covers a short introduction to different value configurations
that may exist within a company in addition to give account for important knowledge
management areas. The third chapter describes the method that has been used in order to
gain necessary information; interviews and textual analysis. Further, the case is presented
in order to introduce Opera’s history, product lines and work philosophy.
The analysis is to be found in chapter five. Firstly, Opera is situated among different
value configurations. The rest of the chapter is summarizing the key findings and actual
situation from the interview executed by the project group related to the fundamental
topics generation, codification and transfer.
The sixth chapter is discussing the findings from the analysis, and the project group
evaluates existing practices and suggests potential improvements. Important factors like
organizational culture, motivation, and knowledge workers play a significant part in the
discussion.
At the end, the project group concludes with Opera’s current situation and summarizes
the main suggestions related to technological changes, an expanding organization, and
strategy. The references used throughout the report are listed in chapter seven.
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2 Theory
In this section we will describe the different frameworks with which we have chosen to
analyze Opera. First we will describe a framework for deciding on what type of strategic
intent Opera has. This will be valuable when localizing the value creation in the selected
company. Then we will move into the more concrete knowledge focus and describe some
frameworks we will use for this.
2.1 Two types of knowledge
Kuhn (1962) argues that scientific knowledge evolves in two directions. The normal way
of accumulating knowledge is by solving puzzles according to rules defined by the
current paradigm of doing science within a given discipline. Every now and then,
however, this paradigm may be challenged, and new ways of understanding the world
may evolve.
The way Kuhn describes the process of doing scientific research is strikingly similar to
how Argyris and Schön (1978) suggests how to create organizational learning through
what they call the model of “double loop learning”.
Figure 1 – Double loop learning (Argyris & Schön, 1978)
An organization may learn through the methods of quality management, i.e. identifying
errors and opportunities for improvement, and work of ways to improve the system based
on such insights, as would correspond to “single loop learning”. However, from time to
time it may strike the organization that the whole system should have been designed in a
completely different manner, so by challenging the current assumptions and beliefs, the
variables governing the single loop learning may be adjusted. This external perspective
on the system is referred to as “double loop learning”.
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Jashapara (2004: 135) suggests total quality management (TQM) and business process
engineering (BPR) as a possible way for understanding or implementing double loop
learning. In the appendix B of ISO 9004:2000, it is suggested that double loop learning
should be a natural way of operating any ISO 9001:2000 certifiable quality management
system, where the inner loop learning is handled by methods for creating continuous
improvements (“kaizen”; Imai, 1983) while the outer loop is handled by “breakthrough
management” (Juran, 1964).
What seems to us to be not all that clearly stated in the quality management literature,
and knowledge management literature, is the way the inner loop and outer loop of double
loop learning seem to correspond to two different ways of understanding the world. In
our understanding, the difference corresponds to the “two cultures” of natural science and
social science (Snow, 1964), meaning that the two cultures deal with two different
concepts of knowledge, corresponding to whether the purpose of the research is to predict
and control nature or whether it is to “understand” a culture from an anthropological
point of view, i.e. to understand the language of the tribe in terms of observing what they
tend to do.
As Kuhn explains his gradual understanding of the process of scientific discovery to start
with the understanding of hermeneutics (Lee, 1991), a similar approach may be used for
explaining Deming’s image of the organization as a learning system. In fact,
Sherkenbach (1986: 35) uses a model similar to figure 1 to illustrate the Deming
philosophy of organizational learning by illustrating process improvement within the
current system as the inner loop feedback mechanism between supplier and producer,
following the usual methods of statistical process control, while the outer loop feedback
mechanism corresponds to consumer research.
In this presentation we consequently try to distinguish between knowledge processes
related to the social science of the outer loop, using Actor-Network Theory (Latour,
1987) as a possible framework, while applying the traditional methods of statistical
quality control (Deming, 1992) for analyzing the knowledge processes within the inner
loop.
2.2 Knowledge Management in a Actor-Network Theory
perspective
Rather than looking at knowledge as something that is contained by someone or
something, it is possible or even feasible to recognize knowledge as a network, or
network of contextualized data and information, and that this network may consist of
knowledgeable and may be not so knowledgeable humans, a web of experience, an urge
to tell and a yearning to know. In all a suitable network for the creation and
transformation of knowledge from tacit to explicit and back, in addition to tacit to tacit
and explicit to explicit. In an environment of learning in several directions and contexts,
we form networks of knowledge, where we teach and learn, show and tell, exchanging a
mix of tacit and explicit knowledge in a both structured and unstructured manner, with all
the influencing factors that are comprised of earlier experience, education, familiarity
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with the tools needed to understand and manage a task, relations to others and so on.
Within the science and technology field it is of huge importance to be able to formulate
and understand information, innovation and knowledge management processes, and
hence ANT was created; in order to better understand not only what kind of knowledge
that exists and gets distributed in an organization, but also how, and by that exploring
how a knowledge network is created (Monteiro, 2000:72). ANT is, allthough it is called a
theory, more of a material/knowledge-semiotic method that gives us a powerful
linguistical tool to describe KM processes and relations.
Inn med avsnitt hentet fra John Law, Notes on ANT inn her.
Networking - flow of knowledge – avsnitt inn her.
Kanskje et teoriavsnitt om globaliseringsperspektiv inn her?
NTAX-specific
2.2.1 Main ANT-concepts in a KM perspective applied within the
organization
Inscriptions
Results might be regarded as a sort reciprocal inscription, in that members of the
organisation make efforts to accomplish certain goals. In that sense, a potential
achievement will have an impact on how they perform their work. In order to be able to
measure their efforts during the work process, standards, metrics and routines have to be
established. Another inscription is that knowledge itself is built into these metrics,
standards and routines
Translation
In a process of going from tacit to explicit knowledge, unstructured explicit knowledge,
or from coincidental to scientific thinking, the members of the organization will have to
re-interpret distributed knowledge in alignment with one's needs, which in turn translates
into a more general need eventually leading to a unified solution (Hanseth & Monteiro,
1998). The process of translation is based on a medium or standard into which it is
inscribed (Callon, 1991), and at NTAX this could typically be the language of statistics.
Enrollment
Kommer
Alignment
Kommer
Heterogeneity
Kommer
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2.3 Knowledge Management in a Total Quality Management
perspective
Although the best definition of Total Quality Management (TQM), in a European
context, may be the evaluation critera for the annual quality awards (EFQM, 2006), when
discussion the knowledge management principles underlying the ideas of quality
management, we chose to focus on the ideas put forward by Shewhart and Deming.
Kontinuerlig forbedring av systemet for kvalitetsstyring
Ledelsens ansvar
Kunder
Måling, analyse
og forbedring
Ressursstyring
Realisering av
produkt
Krav
Kunder
Tilfredshet
Produkt
Verdiøkende aktiviteter
Informasjonsstrøm
Figure 2 – The ISO 9000:2000 quality management framework
<Petters fordrag om SPC>
2.4 Organizational theory
Mintzberg (1979, 1983) defines five structures; the professional bureaucracy, the simple
structure, the machine bureaucracy, the divisional structure and the adhocracy. These are
structures that describe general configurations of organizations. For example, what is the
diverse part of the organization (Strategic apex, technostructure, middle line, operating
core and support staff), and what are the diverse coordination mechanisms inside the
diverse structures? Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) suggest that the value chain is tightly
connected with the machine bureaucracy, the value shop with the professional
bureaucracy or the operational adhocracy, and that the value network fits the
administrative adhocracy.
We will add some comments to this in section 5.1.
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<This will be updated through the ideas presented by Anne>
2.5 Cultural theory
Hani comments on culture within the organization, and issues related to globalization and
hetrogenity among “customers” (tax payers).
2.6 Value configurations and Opera
Understanding how firms differ is a central challenge for both the theory and practice of
strategic management (Stabell and Fjeldstad 1998:413). Knowledge Management can be
seen as a part of the strategic management (for example Hariharan 2002). The way a firm
create value, and how they support this value creation knowledge is hence important for
the firm’s existence.
Porter’s value chain is seen as a generic framework to analyze the activities in an
industry. In their work Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998:414) encounter problems using the
value chain in some particular examples (service industry for example), ”because the
resulting chain often obscures rather than illuminate the essence of value creations”
(ibid:414) as it ”directs too much attention to unit costs, i.e. finding costs, development
costs, and production costs” (ibid:414). Stabell and Fjeldstad suggest three generic value
configurations, the value chain ”completed” with value shop and value network.
All the three configurations
suggested by Stabell and
Fjeldstad has two main
parts; Primary activities,
which focuses on the value
creation, the product, and
the
support
activities,
which is the support to
value creation.
Figure 1 – Illustration of Value chain
2.6.1 Value chain
In the traditional value chain, value is created by transforming inputs into products, by
transporting raw material to a production facility, finish the products there, and ship them
to customers (Stabell and Fjeldstad 1998:416). Technology development is performed to
either reduce the cost of a product, through process improvement, or to raise the
commendable prices by improving the adaptation of the product to Buyer purchasing
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criteria 1(ibid:416). The value chain has a fixed set of activities that enables it to produce
a standard product in large numbers.
Primary activities
The value chain has 5 primary activities;
Inbound logistics, receiving and storing raw material. Then we have operations which
transforms inputs to outputs, and the outbound logistics where we distribute product to
buyers. Then there is marketing and sales, and service.
2.6.2 Value shop
The value shop has the following main
factors:
 Focused on solving a customer
or a clients particular problem,
hence ”configured to deal with
unique cases” (Stabell and
Fjeldstad 1998:421)
 ”The shop metaphor signals that
assembly and matching of both
problems and problem solving
resources are important for the
organization and management of
the value shop”(ibid:421)
Figure 2 - Illustration of value shop


It is a cyclic and iterative process. The product is improved several times during
the process
Examples : Hospitals, consultancy business
The value shop has also 5 primary activities; the Problem-finding and acquisition, which
includes finding and formulates a problem, problem-solving where we evaluate
alternative solutions, and then the choice where we choose one of the alternatives. The
last two activities are execution associated with implementation of the choice, and control
and evaluation.
2.6.3 Value network
In the global economy there are sometimes organizations that cooperate even though they
are competitors. Examples of this are telephone companies, in Norway Telenor leases the
telephone lines to their rivals (Netcom). In the value network the network is critical for
the customer and the organization, hence for the value creation. Some other particularities
with the value network are:
1
The things that the customers emphasize when buying a product or a service (price, gain, availability,
quality etc)
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It relies on a mediating technology to link client or customers who wish to be
interdependent: “Value creation in the value networks is the organization and facilitation
of exchange between customers” (Stabell and Fjeldstad 1998: 427). Network externalities
affect the value for the customer (ibid: 428)
The value network has three primary
activities:
 Network promotion and contract
management, where the customers are
first invited to join the network, before
they get selected.
 Service provisioning which consists of
activities associated with establishing,
maintaining and terminating links
between customers
 Network infrastructure where the
infrastructure maintenance activities is
done
Figure 3 – Illustration of value network
2.7 KM processes
An important part of this assignment is to identify the KM processes that can be related to
knowledge generation, knowledge codification and knowledge transfer. This chapter
gives a theoretical presentation of these three processes. Firstly, we find it necessary to
provide an understanding of the term knowledge worker used throughout the report.
2.7.1 Knowledge worker
Turban, McLean and Wetherbe (2002) define knowledge workers as:
“People who create information and knowledge as part of their work and integrate it into the
business and are responsible for finding and developing new knowledge for the organization and
integrating it with existing knowledge.”
According to Drucker (1999) six major factors exist to determine if a person is a
knowledge-worker:
 Asks the question “What is the task?”
 Has the autonomy (which means that the person have to manage her/himself)
 Shows a continuing innovation
 Requires continuous learning but equally provides continuous teaching.
 Regards quality of the output at least as important as quantity
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
Must be seen and treated as an asset rather than a cost
The management in Opera describes the employees as knowledge workers as discussed in
chapter 6.1.1.
2.7.2 Knowledge generation
According to Davenport and Prusak (1998: 52), knowledge generation refers to: “…, the
specific activities and initiatives firms undertake to increase their stock of corporate
knowledge”. They characterize the importance of knowledge generation in this way:
“…since it is axiomatic that a firm’s greatest asset is its knowledge, then the firm that
fails to generate new knowledge will probably cease to exist.”(ibid.: 67). Davenport and
Prusak (ibid.) divide knowledge generation into five modes; acquisition, dedicated
resources, fusion, adaptation, and knowledge networking. Here we will explain the five
modes and in chapter 5.2.1 we will try to analyze Opera in relation to these modes.
Acquisition
Acquisition refers to the dimension of knowledge generation where the knowledge is
acquired by the organizations as well as that developed within it. Hiring knowledgeable
individuals is one of the most effective and direct ways to acquire knowledge. (Davenport
and Prusak 1998)
Dedicated resources
Dedicated resources is the traditional approach in which an organization generates
knowledge through establishing specific units or groups for that purpose. An obvious
example is a R&D department. (Davenport and Prusak 1998)
Fusion
Knowledge generation through fusion means bringing people with different knowledge
and experience together to work on a problem or a project. This method enforces people
to collaborate in order to produce a joint result, and the chances for achieving a more
creative solution may increase. (Davenport and Prusak 1998)
Adaptation
Adaptation related to knowledge generation refers to changes in an organization, which
are responses to new products from competitors, new technologies, and social and
economic changes. Davenport and Prusak (1998), state that organizations that do not
respond to new conditions will fail.
Knowledge networking
Knowledge networking refers to the context where knowledge is generated through
“informal, self-organizing networks that may over time become more formalized”
(Davenport and Prusak 1998: 65).
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2.7.3 Knowledge codification
Knowledge codification involves codified material such as texts and computer systems
that organize and contain knowledge of an organization. The purpose of knowledge
codification is: “…to put organizational knowledge into a form that makes it accessible to
those who need it” (Davenport and Prusak 1998: 68).
The main challenge concerning knowledge codification is to make the knowledge
accessible without loosing its distinctive attributes. In other words, the challenge is to
preserve it as knowledge and not as information or data. (ibid.)
Mapping knowledge sources in the organization in the form of a knowledge map is also
important in connection with identifying tacit knowledge. A knowledge map points to
knowledge but does not contain it. Typically, it points to people as well as to documents
and databases that hold knowledge. (ibid.)
In the analysis in chapter 5.2.2, we will highlight Opera’s knowledge codification sources
and find out if they have some kind of knowledge map.
2.7.4 Knowledge transfer
Davenport and Prusak (1998:101) state that knowledge transfer involves two actions;
transmission and absorption. The goal of knowledge transfer is to improve an
organization’s ability to work, so these two actions only provide value if they lead to
change in behavior. Even though a person is able to absorb knowledge, there are several
factors that must be put in place in order to make use of it. These factors are mentioned in
the next chapter (2.3.5) about the organizational culture.
Nonaka (1995:19) provides a model with four different modes of knowledge conversion
with the basis in the terms tacit and explicit knowledge as the two main types of human
knowledge. The model (with examples) is shown below, and the different variants;
socialization, externalization, internalization and combination are discussed according to
Opera’s situation in chapter 5.2.3.
(IBM Research, 2001)
Table 1 – Nonaka’s model of knowledge conversion
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2.7.5 Organizational culture
By creating and nurturing a knowledge-sharing culture, a company will construct a
working environment where individuals are motivated to share their knowledge so that
the company, as a whole, can obtain an appropriate breadth of skills and expertise.
According to Rumizen et al. (2003), must the following factors be in place to establish
such a culture:
 The individuals must be able to trust each other in terms of dividing tasks,
admitting shortcomings and not having personal motives behind actions.
 Motivation is the management’s as well as the individual’s responsibility.
 Have a reasonable level of acceptance of failure.
 Failure must be regarded as a possibility to learn, not to blame others.
 Low status-barriers between functions and departments within the organization.
Within a company, co-workers often form groups which Davenport and Prusak (1998:
38) call Communities of Practice (CoP). A CoP might be self-organized or sponsored,
but all members communicate common work practices, interests and solutions.
A self-organized CoP arises naturally as the members, in example, use discussion forums
to exchange “lessons learned” and new ideas. If the management tries to control this sort
of CoP, it might fail because the knowledge-sharing process is not fostered by any kind
of external motivation factors like money or position. Sponsored CoP is supported by the
management as it is provided with different kind of resources like tools, humans or
money. A sponsored CoP might give a measurable result to the organization by
measuring the number of contributions, downloads, documents and meetings.
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3 Method
In this task about Opera we have basically used two types of methods; interviews and
textual analysis.
3.1 Interview
There are many forms of interviews, the most common may be face-to-face verbal
interchange, but may also include the face-to-face group interviewing, mail questioning
and telephone surveys (Fontana and Frey 1994). In our task we used face-to-face group
interviewing, where the questions were separated into three main focus areas, and we
interviewed Opera officials one at the time. We had the opportunity to interview three
employees, each with knowledge in different areas of Opera. Our questions were inspired
by the course (INF5190) resources “Guidelines for KM interviews of companies” and
“The Knowledge Management Toolkit”. We had prepared the questions in a way which
Patton (1987) calls”the interview guide” combined with ”standardized open ended
interview”. This method included setting up a list of questions or issues before the
interview. It is also suggested that the prepared questions or issues are changeable during
the session. The standardized open-ended questions imply ”a set of questions carefully
worded and arranged” (ibid: 112). The combination style is a combination, where ”a
number of basic questions may be worded quite precisely” while others are ”permitting
the interviewer more flexibility in probing and considerable freedom in determine when
it’s appropriate to explore certain subjects in greater depth” (ibid: 114)
3.2 Text analysis
In our treatment of text and documents we have used a qualitative approach. By this we
mean that we focused on the documents as”artifacts produced under certain material
conditions”, where the authors are one, or several persons, that has access to materials not
everyone has access to. One can say that”text is an artifact capable of transmission,
manipulation and alternation” (Hodder 1994:394) hence”products of a system within
which they are defined and made meaningful” (Manning and Cullum-Swan 1994:464).
The main sources for our textual analysis are Opera’s different web sites (Opera URL1),
and the Opera brochure (2005) received from the PR executive.
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4 Case
4.1 Opera’s history
Opera was founded in 1995 by Jon von Tetzchner and Geir Ivarsøy. The Opera browser
product was first available on the Internet in 1996, as shareware, which means that users
could download it for free for a certain period, after which they could buy it. After a
relatively successful period, they started to grow substantially in the end of 1999, and
increased from 25 to 100 people in the staff in one year. They signed strategic agreements
with Ericsson, and later with IBM, Nokia, Motorola, Macromedia, Adobe, Symbian,
Canal+ technologies, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera, Sharp, Metroworks, MontaVista Software,
BenQ and Sendo. Opera has in their version 8 made it possible to work with mobile
operators, offering them concept, “the Opera platform” which is a solution directed
towards mobile operators. (After Book et al side 5, Opera 2005).
Opera has their head office in Oslo, and sales offices in Tokyo, Beijing, San Diego and
Austin, and a development office in Linkøping, Sweden. They currently have 205
employees, and 48% of the employees are from other countries than Norway.
Opera Software ASA
Jon S. von Tetzchner
CEO
Sales & Distribution
Marketing & Strategic
Alliances
Research
Engineering
Operations
Lars Boilesen
Rolf Assev
Executive VP Sales &
Distribution
Executive VP
Håkon Wium Lie
Christian Krogh
Christian Jebsen
CTO
VP Engineering
CFO/COO
Figure 4 - Organization chart of Opera
Even though Opera has a hierarchical structure, the communication and cooperation
among the units signify a flat structure, in the sense that the barriers between them are
low. The persons we interviewed belonged to the Engineering department (two persons)
and the Marketing and strategic alliances.
4.2 Opera’s product lines
Opera has four main product lines. These are the browser for the desktop market (PC), for
mobile devices, for home media and for verticals.
Product lines
Desktop
market (PC)
Mobile
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Competitors
- Microsoft’s Internet Explorer
- Mozilla Firefox which is built up by an Open
Source community
- Access (Japanese)
Role/potential
Fundamental
technology for the
entire company
Largest growth
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devices
Home media
Verticals
No concrete, but they experience high barriers of
entry because operators execute large purchasing.
For example UPC ‘boxes’.
No concrete
Slow market, but large
potential in 1 or 2 years
from now.
Table 2 - Product lines of Opera
4.3 W3C standards
Opera’s main knowledge area is their great competence and knowledge on web
standards. The Opera standards follow the w3.org standards. It is important for Opera to
maintain the knowledge on these standards, as they are the fundament for their main
value creation; the making of the browser. Opera must have good programmers that can
program smart, swift and effective algorithms. This is because their browser shall be used
on different sorts of devices, and for example be compatible with Internet Explorer
(which is not based on w3 standard)
I Start
II. Godkjenn
III. Godkjenn
utvikling (V10.1) krav.spek (V10.2) design spek (V10.3)
Kravspesifisering
Kravspek
Spek.design
Løsning
Løsningsbeskrivelse
Testplan
IV. Godkjenn
system (V10.4-6; N7)
Implementasjon
Systembeskrivelse
Testrapport
Drift/
Vedlikehold
Kildekode
Brukerveiledning
V. Godkjenn
endringer (V10.1)
Erfaring
Vedtatte
endringer
Erfaringsrapport
Driftsveiledning
4.4 How to understand the “customer”
In public organizations, such as the Norwegian tax administration, the word “customer”
may perhaps not be the most natural way of describing the tax payer, but in the
terminology of ISO 9000:2000, the receiver of products (or services) from any process is
named the “customer of the process”.
One important aspect of designing quality management systems according to the ISO
9000 standards, is to have systematic ways for working towards the goal of satisfying the
customers. We will now describe some of the elements of Actor-Network Theory as a
framework for understanding customers from an anthropological point of view.
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5 Analysis
5.1 Opera and the three value configurations
Table 2 describes the four product lines at Opera. Out of these four, Opera’s major efforts
are the first two; the browser for desktops and the browser for mobile devices. The PC
desktop has the biggest income, while mobile browser has the biggest growth.
The value chain can thereby be used to describe how Opera creates value, as they
produce a product, a browser, for a relatively high number of customers, it is
standardized too a large extent, and it gives value to the end user. They are however
purchasing the customers through creating networks between them and the customers,
where you can for example buy and download the browser. Opera is an open source
product and attracts several ideological IT users. Therefore, a special Opera community
exists (My Opera Community URL), which can be regarded as an ideological”fan-club”.
This community, consisting of 140 000 active members, is relatively actively engaged in
the production and spreading of the product, in that they give suggestions for
development, testing and evaluation. This means that they give valuable input to the
Opera Corporation, hence the network is important for them; it is valuable for both user
and Opera. In the development process, when developing the software, Opera works in a
way closely related to the way one works in the value shop; cyclic, iterative where ideas
are tried out, products are created, reflected upon and improved.
Opera has then elements from all the three configurations outlined by Stabell and
Fjeldstad. First of all they have to create a product (browsers) for a commercial market,
produce it in an iterative and cyclic way (improve the product all the time in new
versions) as they meet new challenges from the customers and clients (can be people or
mobile operators), and they have to be quick to communicate these changes to the
network they belong. In addition, the Opera community is a valuable network where
knowledge about programming, the product and techniques for development are
discussed. Hence, Opera’s knowledge has to be related to the product (chain and shop),
but also to how it can be transferred and how discussion in the forum develops new
knowledge (network).
Opera Software, an Adhocracy
In section 2.2 we described the configurations outlined by Henry Mintzberg. In an
INF5250-assignment written by Vincent, Rivierre and Cook in 2004, Opera is
characterized as an adhocracy because”their key coordinating mechanism is amongst the
workers”, the work they perform are highly specialized and the workers are very skilled,
”there is a very well defined ”corporate culture” that fosters a pleasant and productive
environment and a high level of ”esprit de corps””. Opera has also an organic structure,
young age and relatively small size, and they have a very sophisticated system. (Vincent,
Rivierre and Cook 2004:11).
If Opera is an Adhocracy, it then belongs to the value shop, or the value network strategy
configuration.
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5.2 KM processes in Opera
5.2.1 Knowledge generation
Acquisition
In Opera’s case acquisition is the main approach to get hold of knowledge. Every day
Opera receives a large number of open job applications and CVs. They have wellestablished procedures to assess these CVs and to select good candidates from them. The
chosen candidates are tested for six hours, before they are eventually hired. This process
indicates that Opera have specific demands concerning knowledge and that knowledge is
of great value for them.
Another way for an organization to acquire knowledge is to rent it. This means renting a
knowledge source, as for example a consultant. (Davenport and Prusak 1998) Some years
ago, during “peak” times, it occurred that Opera rented consultants. They were rented for
short periods to solve specific problems. Opera experienced however that the consultants
gave wrong or inadequate solutions. Furthermore, the management in Opera realized that
using external consultants could be a risk in the sense that they were sharing businessspecific information. The management also saw that bringing in experts did not
necessarily add new knowledge to the organization. Therefore, Opera decided to appoint
people rather than renting human resources in order to acquire knowledge.
Dedicated resources
Opera has no dedicated R&D department. On the other hand, they encourage their
employees to do continuous training and education. It is scheduled that any employee can
spend a certain number of hours (during working hours) to get to know new technologies
or solutions. In addition, employees can attend optional lectures and workshops in order
to maintain and update their competency. Moreover, they have some collaboration with
the Research Council of Norway.
Fusion
Most of the work in Opera is performed in teams. Each team is composed of employees,
often from different departments, with various skills and interests. According to Opera,
the process of forming a team is an informal process. It is the employees themselves that
request who they want to work with. Nevertheless, we would expect that the management
has some kind of a final word in the composition of the teams.
Adaptation
One of the biggest success factors for Opera is the adaptation to the W3C web standards.
The knowledge they have obtained regarding these standards, create a very valuable
platform for expansion for Opera as there an increasing number of employees who are
familiar with it.
Knowledge networking
As we have mentioned earlier, Opera offers a web-based community, the My Opera
Community, for their users, where the users can contribute with opinions and knowledge
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and interact with each other and with Opera’s employees. In this case, Opera has created
a community of knowers.
In addition, Opera participates on international IT-conferences. Here they can interact
with and learn from other participants in the IT-business, and in that way they can
generate new knowledge.
Partnership is third example of knowledge networking in Opera’s case. Opera has formed
several partnerships with technology providers such as Adobe, IBM, Google and Nokia.
Opera believe in working together with other providers, so that they can overcome
obstacles and reach new levels of user benefits. (Opera URL2)
5.2.2 Knowledge codification
In Opera, the employees have a lot of knowledge concerning all phases of software
development. As far as we have identified in Opera, the following infrastructures, tools
and documents can more or less be regarded as knowledge codification sources:
 Working routines: documents that describe what the employees shall do.
 E-mailing and e-mail lists: are regarded as the most efficient and most used tools
for exchanging knowledge within Opera.
 Intranet: is used for resources like calendars, news within the organization, and
vacations.
 Different Wikis: where people exchange informal messages in any topic.
 The Bug Tracking System (BTS) (Opera URL3): enables the QA-department, as
well as the users, to register bugs and add comments to what they find in Opera’s
browser. 15 000 bugs are reported and stored in this system every year.
 Project Management System (PMS): is a tool used to store all information
related to a project.
 my.opera.com (My Opera Community URL): Community for users of the Operabrowser.
 WAR room: is established when launching a new project.
 Portals: in some situations, a project group establishes their own portal, in order
to easily display updated information related to the project only. For example, the
mobile product line utilizes this with the so-called “mobile portal”.
Opera does not have any knowledge map in their organization. They regard themselves as
a relatively small organization where everybody knows everybody. That means that every
employee knows where he/she can find knowledge.
5.2.3 Mechanisms of knowledge transfer
The management in Opera is fully aware of the importance of maintaining knowledge
within the organization. Work groups are often composed of people with the same
competency in order to make sure that the knowledge remains in Opera in case people are
leaving. Cross-co-operations between departments and functions are regarded as a good
way to provide a variety of tasks and to exchange knowledge.
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Nonaka’s model for knowledge conversion section 2.3.4 is the basis for the following
analysis.
Socialization
In Opera, socialization is the most used method for transferring tacit to tacit knowledge.
As mentioned earlier, Opera’s working environment can be characterized as very social
with young people from different cultural backgrounds. So far, the management is relying
on social interaction among employees as the easiest and most efficient way of
exchanging knowledge. Opera arranges “A night at the Opera” every Friday afternoon
where the employees meet up and get to know each other in a different setting than in the
daily office or workspace. In addition, they have tried to establish a light and open place
of work with some comfortable lounge suites in the corridors. The management
emphasizes that all employees have a friendly and open attitude, and they refer to each
other with first names.
Externalization
Externalization is the type of knowledge transfer that involves transferring explicit to
tacit knowledge. Opera arranges workshops where employees get “hands-on-practice” by
solving tasks in teams. They have also tried to run some video conferences with coworkers staying in other geographical location (like countries in Asia and the USA), but
the method was not regarded as efficient nor convenient.
Internalization
When it comes to internalization, which comprises how to transfer explicit to tacit
knowledge, project evaluations are important. Opera admits they do not have any formal
standards or routines for running evaluations.
Combination
The combination mode is how to transfer explicit to explicit knowledge. In Opera’s
situation, this is a process that must be supported by a technical infrastructure. Existing
technical tools are listed and described in the previous section “Knowledge codification”.
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6 Discussion
6.1 Knowledge generation
6.1.1 Basic factors for acquisition
According to the “Top ten reason to work at Opera” at Opera’s official homepage
(URL1), one of the main points is; We know that responsibility fosters dedication, and
don’t believe in micromanagement. As the organization is practicing a more flat structure
compared to the traditional hierarchical structure, each employee experiences a higher
level of responsibility to assigned tasks, and they are showing a greater commitment to
the project and the company.
Since Opera keeps distance from micromanagement as a leader style and are regarding
their employees as knowledge workers, the staff are typically told what to do, but not how
to do the task. The project group considers this statement as an important basis for
successfully creating a knowledge-sharing working culture. The organizational focus is to
make employees share and create new knowledge, but one must keep in mind that the
individuals must have the opportunity to preserve their ability to obtain and demonstrate
specialization within different areas (Grant, 1997).
For example, the key product tester in the Quality Assurance department demonstrates
such specialization. This person is regarded as an expert in one area, which provides
increased job satisfaction for the employee. Having a good working environment in
place, will make this key person willing to do an effort in sharing knowledge in terms of
training of new employees and keep all relevant information fully available for the rest of
the organization.
A traditional problem is the fact that people are not willing to share valuable knowledge
without getting any kind of reward. The fear of loosing a position where one always has
been regarded as the expert and suddenly become “needless” is a natural way of thinking.
The management in Opera is not regarding this phenomenon as a problem because they
mean that every employee has a unique competency and are confident with their relations
to a working environment characterized by high sociability.
The project group would like to emphasize that it is the management’s responsibility to
encourage and motivate people to take part in the knowledge management activities in
Opera. Opera is regarding themselves as a growing company, and they might be facing
challenges in sustaining such a freely and open organizational culture. The project group
suggests the following activities to be followed in order to sustain the motivation among
their employees:
 Keep up social events like the popular “A night at the Opera” every Friday
afternoon. Humoristic use of informal titles like “best seller of the week” can be a
small but great motivator in cases where the employee’s task can be characterized
as tedious.
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

Encourage people to meet each other and exchange informal information by
placing coffee machines or comfortable lounge suites where people have small
breaks from their tasks.
Highlight persons that have demonstrated significant effort in knowledge
management activities such as training a new employee or found the solution to a
known problem. Even if the solution-finder has already gained “honor and glory”
among close colleagues, he or she will stand out as a good example for other
departments in the organization.
Opera is not running any financially based bonus programs, and the project group is
supporting this decision. The reason is that a bonus program might become unfavorable
for employees in departments where achievement is not that measurable, for example the
sales department versus production department.
6.1.2 Dedicated resources
In our opinion, there are both pros and cons to whether Opera should establish a
dedicated resource like a R&D department or not. One pro can be that Opera is in the
very front of their core business area, and to stay in this position they need indefinitely to
focus on innovations. As stated earlier, Microsoft with their Internet Explorer is their
main competitor, and Microsoft certainly dedicates a lot of resources on producing new
features and improvements to their browser-technology.
On the other hand, if we regard the current corporate size of Opera, it does not
necessarily support an establishment of a R&D department. In our view, a small
organization like Opera, could just as well manage without a R&D department.
Furthermore, with the practice Opera has, we expect that they probably do not face
extensive problems concerning transfer of knowledge from the knowledge creators to the
knowledge users. Davenport & Prusak (1998: 59) state that: “Knowledge creators and
users may not even speak the same language.” In Opera’s case, we can claim that the
knowledge creators in most cases also are the knowledge users, since the employees do
research in fields that they themselves work with.
However, a lack of separation between R&D and other parts of the business may create
problems. As Davenport and Prusak (ibid.: 58) say:
“The premise behind separating R&D from other parts of the firm is to give researchers the
freedom to explore ideas without the constraints imposed by a preoccupation with profits and
deadlines.”
This implies that the research efforts of the individuals in Opera, to a certain extent may
be bounded by the individual’s actual occupation. To avoid this, it is important that the
managers make sure that the employees are given time to update their competency.
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6.1.3 Fusion
One problem with fusion is that the group members do not have the same common
ground, and that this can result in chaos (Davenport and Prusak 1998). The type of fusion
Opera practices, does, in our opinion, to a certain extent prevent this from happening.
Since the employees themselves can have a say in who they want to work with, it is more
likely that there is a common ground amongst the individuals in the team.
However, the freedom of the employees to choose team members, can weaken the
creative potential of the fusion. That is because the fusion has to have some degree of
complexity and even conflict to create creative solutions (ibid.). In Opera’s case, there is
a risk that the teams are more homogeneous than what is desirable.
6.1.4 Adaptation
In our opinion, it is difficult to determine Opera’s ability to adapt to changing conditions
in their business field, partly because it is a young organization. Still, they must have
done something right, since they have had quite a lot of success during their lifetime.
And, despite their success, which according to Davenport & Prusak (1998: 63) often is
“the enemy of innovation”, one must say that they have managed to be innovative in their
business too. Recently, however, figures indicate that Opera is not doing as well as earlier
(Hegnar Online URL). Maybe success can be the enemy of innovation in Opera’s case
after all?
In the analysis we mentioned the strength of Opera, regarding the knowledge on the web
standards (W3C). There can however be certain problems related to such standards, if
they are not flexible enough. Opera have a cyclic iterative way to produce their products,
and if a standard hampers the innovation perspective, by being to tight, this can create a
problem. We didn’t uncover any such problems in our work, but our task included a
general and not very profound analysis
Nevertheless, there are some things Opera can do to support their adaptive ability.
Davenport and Prusak (1998) underline the importance of hiring people who have proven
experience in taking on new tasks. In that way, they get employees who are prepared and
capable to learn new things. Moreover, the employees should also be encouraged to
switch jobs frequently inside the organization.
6.1.5 Knowledge networking
As we mentioned in section 5.2.1, Opera has several types of networking practices. The
Opera community has participants who profoundly discuss every aspect of the browser,
hence the standards it is built on. This intensive and knowledge-full community of
practice hence tests several ‘best practices’ (for example compatibility and scalability) in
a way that increases the robustness of the product. Elements (solutions, algorithms or
compatibility choices) inside the browser will be discussed thoroughly, and this is a
valuable source of knowledge for Opera. We mentioned two other types of networks in
section 5.2.1
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6.2 Knowledge codification
6.2.1 The preservation-level of Opera’s knowledge sources
As we mentioned in chapter 2.3.3, it is vital in the knowledge codification process to
ensure the knowledge’s distinctive attributes. In Opera’s case, there are several different
codification sources that support different areas. An important question in regard to this is
therefore: to what extent do Opera’s knowledge codification sources preserve the
knowledge’s integrity?
In general, a rule of thumb is: “…, some structure for knowledge is necessary, but too
much kills it” (Davenport and Prusak 1998:68). Since we have not studied the knowledge
codification sources in Opera, we can not discuss the sources’ level of knowledgepreservation in detail. Still, we may assume that some of the more business-oriented
sources like the BTS (Bug Tracking System) and the PMS (Project Management System)
have some degree of structure in the knowledge they hold. That is because these systems
are of great value to Opera’s debugging activities and project activities respectively.
6.2.2 Knowledge map
The problem with electronically based knowledge codification sources, which Opera’s
sources can be considered as, is that they in most cases only embed explicit knowledge.
This can be supported by Davenport & Prusak’s (1998:70) following statement about
tacit knowledge: “Tacit, complex knowledge, developed and internalized by the knower
over a long period of time, is almost impossible to reproduce in a document or database”.
In our opinion, tacit knowledge is extremely important in software development, and thus
also in Opera’s case. For example in programming you are dependent on tacit knowledge
in order to attack complex problems. An important question concerning this is therefore:
If the knowledge codification sources of Opera only contain explicit knowledge, how can
the employees in Opera find tacit knowledge in the organization?
As we have mentioned earlier, Opera’s main focus when they appoint people is that they
have knowledge. We suppose that Opera also emphasize skills in practicing the
knowledge. Evidently, this should indicate that most of the employees have both explicit
and tacit knowledge in their working fields. Nevertheless, it is obvious that one can not
know everything, and now and then needs to seek knowledge elsewhere in the
organization. A knowledge map is helpful in this situation. As we stated in chapter 5.2.2
(analysis), Opera does not have any kind of knowledge map that tells the employees who
knows what. The management in Opera thinks that the organization is quite transparent
and thus easy to find knowledge across departments. In our view, it might be that the size
of Opera not inevitably necessitates a knowledge map. However, we would recommend
that they make one as they are characterizing themselves as a “growing company”. They
should at least make one for the most critical departments in the company, like the
Engineering and QA. Besides being beneficial for the knowledge-seekers, it would also
be useful for the management when they consider the composition of project-teams.
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On the other hand, it is not obvious how Opera should assemble a knowledge map.
Davenport and Prusak (ibid: 73) suggest two methods. Either “…use surveys that ask
employees what knowledge they have and where they get the knowledge they need to do
their jobs”, or “…follow a trail of recommendations,…” where they talk to a knowledge
source in the organization that another person in the organization has recommended and
so on. Which of the two methods Opera should choose, is not easy to conclude. There are
both pros and cons to the two methods. However, we think that the first method probably
is the least time-consuming, and hence maybe the most suitable alternative for Opera.
Two other factors to consider in connection with knowledge maps are what form they
should have and where to put them. Davenport and Prusak (ibid.) advocate for
electronically based knowledge maps. They argue that an electronic map can be revised
and distributed more easily than a knowledge map in a paper document. Furthermore,
Davenport and Prusak mention Lotus Notes and Web browser/intranet systems as
widespread tools for making knowledge maps accessible. In our opinion, making an
electronically based knowledge map accessible from Opera’s Intranet sounds like a
sensible solution in Opera’s case. That is because most of the employees in Opera
evidently are used to work with computers, and Opera also has an existing Intranet.
6.3 Knowledge transfer
The methods for transferring knowledge is following Nonaka’s model introduced in
section 2.3.4.
6.3.1 Socialization
Opera has established good conditions for the process of transferring tacit to tacit
knowledge, referred to as socialization. Arranging social events and creating a workspace
where it is possible have informal talks are major factors in this process. However, it is
still important for the management to be aware of the motivation factors and activities
that must be in place in order to maintain and improve the existing organizational culture.
The company will probably expand during the next few months and years, and it is
critical to rely on this way of transferring knowledge. The project group recommends the
management to look at the other modes of transferring knowledge (other than
socialization) suggested in this chapter.
6.3.2 Internalization
As identified in the analysis, Opera lacked some activities related to the process of
transferring explicit to tacit knowledge, named internalization. When it comes to project
evaluations, it is suggested that the management prepare routines for evaluating tools,
techniques, competency, main problems and its solutions, shortcomings and economy for
every project. Opera has already got PMS (Project Management System) to track
information related to projects. It is suggested to continue exploiting this tool in order to
evaluate the quality of work performed in the company as a whole. This will make the
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organization able to “learn from failure” which is an important principle within
knowledge management. Not having this principle in place might lead to different groups
doing the exactly same mistakes over again. This is wasted resources and it can easily
lead to dispersing blames and a destructive attitude instead of looking at it as a way to
learn.
6.3.3 Externalization
Externalization is a very important mode of knowledge conversion, and should be highly
emphasized in Opera. For example, how can a programmer in the production department
be able to teach other colleagues how to write code efficiently? It seems like Opera’s
attempt to arrange workshops is the best way to facilitate this kind of knowledge transfer
at the moment. However, it can also be valuable to establish some kind of training
programs tailored newly appointed employees. If it is possible, the project group suggests
having a contact person (with competency in the selected area) to guide the new coworkers through formal routines, programming methods, demonstrate successful projects,
and make sure they get to know the right people across the departments. This activity can
be more efficiently carried though by appointing a group of people at the same time, not
scattered throughout the quarter.
6.3.4 Combination
When it comes to transferring explicit to explicit knowledge, Opera is facilitating a
number of tools. The management states that e-mails are the most efficient and most
frequently used way of exchanging messages and ideas. Encouraging people to use
discussion forums instead, can be good way to make sure that the information is getting
retrievable from a repository later.
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7 Conclusion
As a result of the project group’s investigations in the software cycles at the Norwegian
Directorate of Taxes, it has been detected a few areas of potential improvements. Today,
the tax administration makes limited use of internal metrics for process monitoring,
internal benchmarking and process improvement, although they have formal routines that
makes it possible to compensate for loss of tacit knowledge due to turnover.
In order to support the knowledge generation in the software lifecycle, we believe the
cultivation and nurturing a knowledge-sharing culture and motivation of employees may
be more efficiently achieved by applying internal metrics and deriving knowledge from
these metrics through the use of methods of statistical quality control. Aligning the
knowledge management strategy with the quality management strategy should form the
the foundation for establishing and maintaining knowledge generation.
When looking at the existing working environment related to the software lifecycles in
the tax administration, it is obvious that socialization is the most used method for
transferring knowledge within the organization, although most aspects of the methods are
made explicit through documents in one way or another. The need for making everything
explicit is consistent with the traditional needs of the bureacracy, while the fact that most
of the important knowledge is kept inside the heads of a few IT experts seems to be
consistent with the psychology and sociology of information technology intensive
environments. Because of this, the project group concludes that it is important to focus
on integrating the current software lifecycle quality management system with the
technical infrastructure, and thus making the knowledge processes more fully integrated
into the logic of the bureacracy.
The technical infrastructure forms basis for the codification of knowledge in the tax
administration, which is a central topic in the report. The project group discusses
implementation and use of knowledge maps, in the style of Ishikawa fishbone diagrams
and Pareto charts, for understanding how problems relate to eachother and how to address
the problems in a more systematic manner. The charts and diagrams should be available
to all parts of the organization by making better use of the Intranet.
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