Activation of Knowledge in an Integrated Business Process Support/Knowledge Management System

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the issue of activation of knowledge in automated Knowledge Management Systems (KMS). According to the authors, activation of knowledge means that a system, based on the knowledge stored in it, automatically suggests a solution appropriate for a task at hand and/or guards against the user invoking inappropriate solutions. The paper discusses activation of knowledge, first, in general, and then, in a more specific manner, while applying general concepts to an integrated Business Process Support and Knowledge Management System (BPS/KMS) that is based on the state-oriented view on business processes. Activation of knowledge in such a system is done through rules of planning. The paper presents a classification of such rules, which is based on deontic logic concepts, and shows how rules of different categories can be used for activation of knowledge. The discussion is illustrated by an example already implemented in a working system. Some details of the current implementation of rules of planning are also presented in the paper.