From Goal Models to Know-How Mapping

Technology domains such as engineering evolve at a fast pace. To keep up to date with such domains, there is a need for researchers and practitioners to effectively and efficiently manage that knowledge. To address the challenge, this work proposes mapping out relevant know-how that is more accessible so all stakeholders can contribute. During the last decade, we have adopted the design science approach to develop a goal-oriented knowledge mapping approach called ME-MAP. We define the syntax and semantics of the language to facilitate the construction of maps and the reasoning on such maps. A series of evaluations indicated that the maps produced were easy to follow, allowed continuous evolution, facilitated easy modification through modularity capabilities, further supported reasoning about know-how, provided adequate expressiveness, and enabled searching know-how. We believe that such a knowledge mapping approach can further improve resource (knowledge) utilization, reduce “reinventing the wheel” phenomena, and further create links across communities.