How a people-centered knowledge platform contributes to developing successful IT systems

There are different ways to measure the success of an IT system and its implementation. If system development and implementation stay within time and budget it is mostly considered a success. As long as deadlines are met one tends to forget to check if the new IT system will adequately support daily operations and will provide a positive boost for the organization in terms of employee happiness (and consequently an increased productivity).

One can also measure the success of an IT system by assessing the level of support it provides to work processes and daily operations. So instead of an IT system that forces people to function within the boundaries the system allows, what you are looking for is an IT system that allows people to do their job better than before. People want to feel they are in control of how they do their work instead of an IT system controlling them in what they do. That way your most important assets, your people, will be happier and perform better.

Giving people the attention they deserve will increase their happiness. A people-centered approach therefore always pays off. Sharing operational knowledge through a people-centered knowledge platform is one of the ways to recognize people’s added value to an organization. This will not just increase the happiness of employees and add to their productivity, but also provides the foundation for the development of a successful IT system.

Sharing operational knowledge works only if one shares content created by employees themselves instead of staff members. Enabling people to create their own content empowers them and ensures that their coworkers will be able to understand the shared content (use of the same language) and use it to their advantage. When you can structure this content through a knowledge platform that enables people to find the knowledge they need quickly and let’s them add new knowledge easily you have created a people-centered knowledge platform. A people-centered knowledge platform is about people and their added value, is demand-driven and able to provide support on exactly the right moment.

This kind of knowledge platform forms the ideal foundation for successful IT development. Since it is a people-centered foundation, if you do things right you will end up with a people-centered IT system as well. The key is to use people’s digitalized operational knowledge to define their information needs. The first step is collecting and digitalizing all the required steps and supporting operational knowledge to perform one’s responsibilities. After that you add people’s subsequent information needs to perform these tasks as well as possible. Help people to describe these in their own words to ensure they get a feeling of ownership of these information needs. These information needs will serve as your information building blocks.

Once these information blocks and how they should look like are defined it is time to actually develop theses information building blocks. The contents of the people-centered knowledge platform can be used to check which communication patterns are in play and should be supported by the new IT system. If for example person A has shared on the knowledge platform that he and his department always need permission first from person B at another department to proceed and finish their part of a service delivery, this should be taken into account as a business rule in the new IT system.

This type of software development will result in a system based on operational knowledge, shared through a people-centered knowledge platform, which will support daily operations instead of shaping and controlling it. It will be an IT system developed with maximum influence by end users. This way of developing yields results not only because it recognizes employees, their skills and knowledge and makes them happy. It also saves time and money. Less ‘translation’ is needed between business and IT, saving money on information analyses. This also saves valuable time resulting in faster delivery, saving even more money.

This method of developing IT systems starts with a well working people-centered knowledge platform. A platform that is created by employees themselves and through which they can access operational knowledge they need everywhere and immediately. If this is done the right way, by truly putting people at the heart of an organization as your most valuable asset, IT systems can be developed that support employees and business instead of frustrating it. This will not only make people happier but will also increase productivity and profit.