Challenges in knowledge management for structuring systems

Abstract

Structuring Systems can be defined as systems, designed, installed, used and maintained within their operational environment for an extremely long duration, answering to the fundamental needs of the society. Examples of such systems are water systems, transport or electricity network. Due to their nature, these systems are characterized to be highly complex, according to the general system theory. In this context, the classical Knowledge Management (KM) approaches are not suited, due to the nature and origins of some data, information and knowledge, the complexity of partner networks that are interacting around the systems, the evolution history of such systems, etc. In this article, we present the main challenges for KM in Structuring Systems, especially in terms of knowledge traceability and heritage from one hand, and knowledge preservation at another one.