What to Do With All These Project Documentations? – Research Issues in Reusing Codified Project Knowledge

Project-based organizations invest a lot of time and effort into the extensive documentation of their projects. These project documents usually contain innovative knowledge and represent a significant source of information for the continual development of a learning organization. However, this codified project knowledge often remains untapped afterwards. A central problem in this context is the sheer information overload due to the often very large documentation stocks in project-based organizations. Against this background, this paper poses the following question: what can be done with the extensive project documentation after it has been created? To answer this question, two methodological approaches are combined. First, a literature review summarizes the current status quo of research in this special area. Then, expert interviews with IT project managers provide a deeper understanding of common practical problems. The combination of respective findings makes it possible to uncover research gaps and subsequently to define future needs for research. In sum, this paper formulates six research issues, which represent a starting point on the path to more comprehensive solutions for practically coping with large stocks of codified project knowledge

Assessing the Automation Potentials of Management Reporting Processes

Digitalization is driving the automation of accounting processes. It is estimated that up to 70% of administrative activities could be carried out by automated, i.e. rule-based sequences, which promises a considerable increase in productivity and efficiency for repetitive, standardized processes. In recent years, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has been increasingly and successfully used for such purposes. However, before implementing a RPA solution, it is essential to evaluate the automation potentials. In the literature, such evaluations are based almost exclusively on process-oriented factors, such as the frequency and duration of processes or the degree of standardization. The assessment of potential cost benefits is often carried out secondarily and on the basis of cost estimates at a higher level. In order to close this gap and to make the cost-based assessment of automation potentials more soundly assessable, this article demonstrates a corresponding approach using Time-Driven Activity- Based Costing (TD ABC). For this purpose, a typical example from accounting is used for a demonstration with a management reporting proces

FEATURE-BASED SENTIMENT ANALYSIS OF CODIFIED

Most project-based organizations possess extensive collections of diverse project documents. Exploring the knowledge codified in such project documents is specifically recommended by the common project management guidelines. In practice, however, project managers are faced with the problem of information overload when trying to analyze the extensive document collections. This paper addresses this problem by combining two approaches already established in other disciplines. The first involves the development of a Project Knowledge Dictionary (PKD) for the automated analysis of knowledge contents codified in project documents. The second involves the integration of a sentiment analysis where concrete opinion expressions (positive/negative) are identified in connection with the codified project knowledge. Building on this, three mutually complementary analyses are demonstrated, which provide the following contributions: (1) determining the volume and distribution of five project knowledge types in project documents; (2) determining the general sentiment (positive/negative) in conjunction with the textual description of the project knowledge; (3) classifying project documents by their sentiment. By this means, the proposed solution provides valuable insight into the emotional situation in projects and contributes to the emerging research issue of project sentiment analysis. Furthermore, the solution makes a contribution to overcoming the information overload by assessing and organizing the knowledge content of large document collections

A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF CONTENT ANALYSES IN IS RESEARCH: PURPOSES, DATA SOURCES, AND METHODOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Qualitative research relies primarily on qualitative data in form of texts. The method of content analysis (CA) represents a scientifically well-founded and effective solution for making valid inferences from varied sources of textual information. This paper investigates the use of CA in the context of high-quality IS research with a focus on the underlying research questions, data sources, and methodological characteristics. Building on that, distinctive patterns, trends through time, and potentials will be discussed and compared with a reference discipline (organizational research). The results indicate that the general application of CA in high-quality IS research has steadily increased. In this context, CA is used in a very wide range of ways to understand and explain complex phenomena. Furthermore, CA is frequently used to categorize primary data collections, derived, for example, from transcribed interviews or open-ended surveys, and to transform qualitative data into quantitative outcomes. Besides other methodological issues, the increasing application of computational approaches seems to distinguish the IS discipline. Finally, this paper should also serve as an introduction to CA, bring transparency with respect to the methodological characteristics, and inspire researchers to carry out further CAs in the context of IS research

Perspectives on reusing codified project knowledge: a structured literature review

Project documentation represents a valuable source of knowledge in project-based organizations. The practical reality is, however, that the knowledge codified in project documents is hardly re-used in future projects. A central problem in this context is the extensive amount of usually textual material. As a consequence, computer-assisted processes are indispensable in order to analytically manage the constantly growing and evolving databases of available project documents. The goal of this study is to summarize the current research focusing on the computer-assisted reuse of textually codified project knowledge and to define the corresponding state-of-the-art in this this specific field of information systems research. As a result of a literature review, this study structures the body of research contributions and outlines what kinds of computer-assisted techniques are incorporated, what practical application areas these solutions address, and in what business domains they are applied. In particular, this should point out research opportunities and thereby make a contribution to the further development of knowledge management in project environments

Perspectives on reusing codified project knowledge: a structured literature review

Project documentation represents a valuable source of knowledge in project-based organizations. The practical reality is, however, that the knowledge codified in project documents is hardly re-used in future projects. A central problem in this context is the extensive amount of usually textual material. As a consequence, computer-assisted processes are indispensable in order to analytically manage the constantly growing and evolving databases of available project documents. The goal of this study is to summarize the current research focusing on the computer-assisted reuse of textually codified project knowledge and to define the corresponding state-of-the-art in this this specific field of information systems research. As a result of a literature review, this study structures the body of research contributions and outlines what kinds of computer-assisted techniques are incorporated, what practical application areas these solutions address, and in what business domains they are applied. In particular, this should point out research opportunities and thereby make a contribution to the further development of knowledge management in project environments

Robotic Process Flexibilization in the Term of Crisis: A Case Study of Robotic Process Automation in a Public Health Department

Due to the pandemic, institutions of the health sector, especially public health departments, are facing major challenges in managing their processes. In a constantly changing environment, new and existing processes have to be adopted or implemented in the shortest possible time, while the process volumes to be managed are constantly increasing. In our article, we use a case study to show how the concept of “flexibility by design” can be influenced by RPA in the sensitive environment of healthcare and how exactly flexibility in process execution can be achieved with it. As a result, we show that RPA can positively implement or enable three of the six realization options from the concept. In addition, the concept was supplemented by two aggregated theoretical dimensions, namely “Response” and “Range,” which summarize the supporting conditions for a process flexibilization with RPA. In the article, we thereby show how exactly RPA can complement existing processes in a healthcare environment and thus, serve to subsequently make rigid process models more flexible

A Curriculum Mining Method for Clustering Study Modules and Assessing their Uniqueness

Curriculum development can pursue several pedagogical goals. One is to design a curriculum that is attractive in comparison with other competing universities. To contribute to such a comparative assessment and, thereby, to the targeted development of curricula, the idea of a curriculum mining method is presented. Here, study modules are divided into homogeneous groups by means of a document clustering procedure. The generated knowledge improves the comparative assessment of curricula in two ways: First, depending on the context, it can be used to assess either the extent of the uniqueness of a module or its consecutiveness with other modules. Second, by supplementing the modules with metadata (e.g., region), a competitive analysis is provided in terms of modules offered by competing institutions. An exemplary case study demonstrates how this improves the evaluation of a specific IS curriculum. In conclusion, the current limitations and next steps of the research project are summarized