Chiaki Hirai

A knowledge management system for dynamic organizational knowledge circulation

The demand for knowledge management is increasing because knowledge is an important and essential resource for sustaining competitiveness. We report a system to support knowledge asset reuse. Incorporating work breakdown structure-based project management, workflow management, and a document database, the system guides workers to efficiently store and reuse knowledge assets. To dynamically circulate knowledge throughout an organization, the system supports the concept of knowledge flow, through which knowledge is transferred from one project to another. A distinctive feature of our approach is that after collecting relevant knowledge, the system sends it to the members of a project and prompts them to have a meeting to discuss whether they accept the knowledge. The purpose of this meeting is to have members internalize knowledge assets and share their tacit knowledge through discussion. We developed a prototype system and evaluated it using our experience with it.

An open modeling infrastructure integrating EDOC and CCM

This paper presents an approach to support the MDA like design of component based distributed applications through the provision of a suitable MOF based modeling infrastructure. This infrastructure is open to a variety of modeling techniques and features the transformation of models based on different meta models. As a concrete example, we will show how EDOC and CCM can be integrated with this modeling infrastructure and consequently how EDOC models are transformed to CCM models.

Combining system development and system test in a model-centric approach

In this paper we will present, how a model centric approach cannot only be used to rapidly develop the system but also at the same time to support the provision of the system tests which is an integral part of the overall system development. The key technology used to achieve this is a set of meta-tools which contains model repository generators and model transformer generators.

Vision sharing for new service development

The integration of technologies and customer value is a key issue for technology-based companies to achieve service innovation. We are developing a methodology for service concept creation focusing on customer value exploration to address this issue. Our primary goal is to deploy our methodology (process, methods, tools, and examples) to business planning sites in our company. By taking an action research approach consisting of four steps, observation (involved in pilot projects), conceptualization, modeling, and deployment, we have clarified the basic concept of our methodology and designed a process for service concept creation: (1) sharing a vision of new services, (2) exploring customer value, and (3) creating a service concept consisting of target users (Who), customer value (What), and key technologies (How). In this paper, we discuss the issues to solve in the early stage of developing new services and illustrate our vision sharing workshop, which is characterized by the following: (1) an interaction technique for empathetic understanding through storytelling and active listening, (2) a visualization technique for sharing clarified vision, (3) a feedback technique for deep understanding. By applying the workshop to our pilot projects, we demonstrated its feasibility and effectiveness.

Development of Methodology for Service Concept Creation

We are developing a methodology for service concept creation. Taking an approach consisting of four steps; observation (involvement in pilot projects), conceptualization, modeling, and deployment, we have clarified the basic concept of our methodology and designed a process for service concept creation. The process includes (1) sharing a vision of new services, (2) exploring customer values, and (3) creating a service concept consisting of target users (WHO), customer values (WHAT), and key technologies (HOW). In this paper we illustrate this process and propose methods designed to be used in the process by focusing on effective use of observation, story telling, and analogies for abductive reasoning in the step of searching for customer values.

Integration of collaborative and systematic approaches for service design

This paper discusses how collaborative and systematic approaches can be integrated for service business planning. We have surveyed several business startups in our company and concluded that service startup can be considered as a sequence of measures to reduce the uncertainty of the most important issue. In addition, it has been concluded that collaboration between the service provider and service users can reduce those uncertainties. Assuming that business planners will adopt this conclusion as the guiding policy for their planning, we propose a business planning procedure using both collaborative and systematic approaches.