Designing an ICT solution for a multi-actor environment: the KMP project experimentation

The objective of this article is to show how the design methodology we experimented allows the creation of both actionable and theoretical knowledge and the reinforcement of both types of knowledge. Especially we intend to demonstrate that the design methodology we built enables to originate a generative dance between theoretical and actionable knowledge, and to solve practical problems in cross-disciplinary, heterogeneous communities from a range of organizations (firms and research laboratories). In order to demonstrate this proposal our article will lean on a specific design research conducted three years ago: the Knowledge Management Platform project (KMP project). Its objective was to design an ICT solution in a specific case of a multi-actor environment. More specifically, the KMP project aimed to build a semantic web service of competencies in order to enhance exchange and combination dynamics of knowledge within the Telecom cluster of Sophia Antipolis (Alpes-Maritimes, France) thanks to an interactive mapping of competencies. The argument is organized as follows. First, we explore design research methodologies in management studies and more specifically recent developments of ICT tools building. Indeed, designing an ICT solution requires a specific attention on use. This leads us to dissociate the designer world from user world. Thus, the key success of an innovation depends on the co-evolution and the convergence of design and use around boundary objects developed during this process. The argument then turns to the KMP experimentation. Finally, we expose and discuss the KMP results. The discussion firstly focuses on the emergence and the development of boundary objects. Then, we analyze how knowledge is both produced and memorized in these boundary objects.