Extending emergent procedures, techniques, and concepts for knowledge management systems analysis.

This paper describes an action research programme through which emergent concepts, procedures and techniques for a method to analyses knowledge management systems were extended. We focus on the research interest of a systems development method that allowed a practical problem to be addressed in concert with research into how business analysis was being carried out for the knowledge management system. Both the problem solving and research contexts of the project are described. The elements of the specific research methods used are related to a particular meta-model of action research and each of them is described in the context of a project to determine the knowledge management systems requirements for an IT recruitment company seeking to improve their competitive edge. A summary is provided of prior work which created a starting point for through set of earlier concepts, procedures and techniques; in particular, themes and fact-finding starting points are expressed which recognise gaps in appropriate models of knowledge management and establish that no credible knowledge management systems development methodologies exist. The refined concepts and procedures that emerged from the IT recruitment project are described in detail and evaluated. They include Context Analysis, Collaborative Analysis, and Collaborative Assessment and Validation of Requirements. Further extensions are also anticipated.