Improving knowledge worker productivity � the ACTIVE approach

Abstract

Pérez (Intelligent Software Components), V Ermolayev (Cadence Design Systems GmbH), R Ghani (Accenture Technology Labs), M Tilly (European Microsoft Innovation Center), T Bösser (kea pro), and A Imtiaz (Forschungsinstitut für Rationalisierung) Knowledge workers are central to an organisation's success, yet the tools they must use often stand in the way of maximising their productivity. The research described here, which is being undertaken as a part of ACTIVE, an EU-funded collaborative research project that will run until February 2011, seeks to remedy some of the defects of current knowledge worker tools. It addresses the need for greater knowledge worker productivity by providing more effective and efficient tools. Three themes drive our research. First, we are concerned with easier sharing of information through a combination of a formal approach based on ontologies and informal techniques such as user tagging and the use of wikis. Second, we are prioritising the delivery of information through an understanding of the user's current task context. And finally, we are helping users to share and reuse informal processes, including by learning those processes from the user's behaviour. The results are relevant to all knowledge work, but are being validated in the domains of telecommunications, consultancy and engineering. Validation is done at the system, user and organisational levels.