Managing knowledge in dispersed design companies

Many organisations now adopt flexible and dispersed working practices to meet the increasingly complex and varied demands of the global marketplace. In this climate, the success of the new product development process is largely dependent upon the effective capture, storage, representation, use and reuse of knowledge. This paper describes WebCADET, a WWW-based knowledge server, that aims to address the key knowledge management issues in dispersed design companies by providing effective and efficient mechanisms for the capture, storage and use/reuse of design knowledge. The paper describes the initial findings of a user testing exercise of WebCADET within an industrial setting.