Developing a Reference Method for Knowledge Auditing

Knowledge management was regarded as the discipline of the 21st century but it has yet to bear all of its fruits. The expectations are high but a number of barriers limit the effects of knowledge management initiatives. A serious problem is the lack of a comprehensive assessment to prepare the ground for the successful implementation of knowledge management initiatives. A promising solution to this problem is the area of knowledge audits. But the theory and the techniques behind it are not yet mature. The following paper is presenting the development of a comprehensive knowledge audit method that could serve as a standardized method for auditing knowledge. A design research approach was used to compare and integrate 13 different knowledge and information audit methods. The analysis of the existing methods was based on the notion of method engineering and the new method was applied and evaluated in a Dutch telecommunications company.