denotes premium content | Jul 24 2008 Feature
posted 1 Mar 2000 in Volume 3 Issue 6
Faros, the Knowledge Room
In part two of this series of three articles, Ove
Rustung Hjelmervik
continues his explanation of
Statoil's development of the Faros Knowledge Management System. After
establishing the key concepts behind Faros, the next challenge was to design a
portal that made information easily accessible to all of the company's
departments and employees.
"If the world is out of joint,you
are the ones to put it back on its hinges and make it a better place to live
in,each according to your own ability."
Fridtjof Nansen.
The Faros Knowledge
Room
Our ambition was to enable each employee to instantly recognise and understand
their own, and other employees', work processes, regardless of Business
Unit association. Based on our vision of how we wanted information to flow to us,
and the use of the Web for realising such a flow, we set out to build a
Knowledge Navigator. 'What should this navigator look like?' we asked. We decided on
a three-dimensional 'entrance' to the information, to give a roomier feeling at
the outset of the navigational journey. The navigator became known as the Faros
Knowledge Room.
In our 1st generation Knowledge Room, we chose the metaphor of a closed
and darkish chamber. But feedback from users suggested a feeling of confinement.
Furthermore, the very room metaphor was thought to be in conflict with the
lighthouse metaphor, one which employees wanted to relate to. At a user meeting
we settled on a concept where the entrance to the Knowledge Room would be at the
top of the lighthouse, looking out on a section of the Norwegian coast. We
decided to assimilate the Knowledge Room with the inside of a control tower on
an offshore platform, and we fitted the room with windows to offer a view out to
where the information is.
It was vital for us to create a feeling of control for the user;
employees need to feel at ease when navigating for information. We believed that
both offshore and onshore employees should be able to relate to the room design.
Throughout the process of designing Faros, we have had to keep the user in
focus, and the threshold of proficiency to the lowest common denominator.
We
ended up designing and organising the 2nd generation Knowledge Room
with instrument panels, in the form of the names of navigational aids such as
'Work Processes', 'Administrative Documents' , 'Technical Documents', 'Learning and
Visualisation' , 'Knowledge Village' and 'Networks' . Using Java application for easy
navigation, the Knowledge Room is designed so that we can replace or insert new subjects
as required. While we decided to have some windows constant, others could
vary between the different Business Units. In the Knowledge Room relating to
the professional network, Operation, Maintenance and Modification (DVM), we
have included windows such as 'Good Practice' (GP). One reason for this is that GP
development is the domain of the professional networks. The Knowledge Room then
becomes a launch pad for further exploration into the work process, and out to
the reference information.
Another vital element of
the navigational tool was the number of clicks needed before arriving at
useful information. Faros' 'two clicks to information' was achieved by combining Java
technology with the Web. The Knowledge Room is an effective way of supporting
the user in reaching their world of information. Once the relevant window is
chosen, the next view offers two sets of information - the Value Chain and work
processes related to the chosen Value Chain activity.
The Work Process
Navigator
From the windows in the Knowledge Room, the user selects the appropriate
entry point for information. We consider the Work Process area (Arbeidsprosess)
to be the most important portal. This area represents the employee's operating
room. It is the heart of their principal functions. When entering this domain,
the first picture to occur is the company's Value Chain, portraying the business
process elements. Here the user can get a comprehensive picture of the company's
value-creating elements. The overview helps familiarise the user with the
company's many activities, and how the hydrocarbons travel from the ground, via
production, refineries, petrochemical plants and out into the market.
The navigational
structure
"Today's computers see the world through the tunnel of the toilet
roll. The systems of the future must be able to do social computing, the ability
to connect into what is happening at the fringes of the work place."
John
Seely Brown, Chief Scientist, XEROX PARC.
Not only was the Faros team staffed
with highly qualified multi-discipline members, but, as users ourselves, we also
carried with us a sound scepticism of IT. Our first priority in designing the
system was the benefit of our colleagues. Our second priority was the company
itself; harvesting its investment in intellectual capital by improving the
company's value creating processes. By now we had identified a set of user
requirements and an IT technology for easy access to information. Our next
challenge was to translate these requirements into a functional navigational
structure.
The
Value Chain
Our second navigational metaphor - the Value Chain - helps the user to
find the activity they need to work in. From here the employee can select the
work process they wish to enter.
We have two basic Value Chain portals.
One serves the operating Business Units (for example, production of
hydrocarbons), the other caters to the professional Business Units (technical
and administrative service providers to the operating units). Of course, there
may be variations on the two basic models, but these relate primarily to the
structure and focus of the Business Units' range of responsibilities within the
company's value creating processes. Great effort has been made to secure
compatibility for easy comparison between the various Communities of Practice
(COP).
The
operating unit's Value Chain was developed as a result of these operating COPs'
modus operandi. Their responsibility is to run the installations in the most
effective way, within Statoil's Health, Environment and Safety standards. To
secure both timely and correct operating data, each information link was
identified relative to the various activities to be carried out on the
facility.
Below the top arrow 'Rammebetingelser' (framework conditions) are found requirements
for Industry's Best Operating Practice. In this section we have also created a
Management Arena for coaching. Here the managers can enter an information room
where they can identify what competencies are required for a given task, who has
the relevant skills and who is available for work. Furthermore, you will find
information on who has which role, managers' responsibilities and their relevant
work processes, and team members identified for co-operative work.
One purpose of
the Management Arena is to get an overview of who belongs to which activity
group, and thus identify who should participate in the regular meetings relating
to an operation. Another purpose is to identify effective teams; to be able to
evaluate team performance, how a team functions and what it can achieve.
In the Management Arena
we have also taken the opportunity to create an information room for running
virtual meetings (based on a prototype product developed by Andersen
Consulting). An individual member can connect up to a meeting in progress from a
hotel room several time zones away. Our traveller can electronically offer their
opinion on the agenda issues left by the other participants in the virtual
meeting. Voting on the issues can take place the following day, but can be left
open for others to vote electronically if required.
The middle arrow contains the main
elements of the operational process in transferring the hydrocarbons from the
ground to the refineries. Behind each of the value elements is found a set of
operating work processes, as can be seen in the right hand side of the picture.
By clicking on '4.2 Production', the work processes related to this value
element will appear on the right.
In Statoil, the professional networks
have been given certain corporate (konsern), supplier (leverandør) and
consultative (konsulent) roles in relation to the operating units. For Faros to
meet the professional COP's requirements, we had to make sure the following
aspects were incorporated into the Value Chain:
Work Process Navigation the zest for IT simplicity
Our
third navigational level is The Work Process. This was our starting point in developing
the work process navigator. First we had to create the 'as is' work process with
the users. This mapping and verification of processes was necessary both in order
to understand how a given function is performed, and how it can be improved into
a 'to be' process. This work can only really be described effectively by people
who have the relevant experience. Our job was to facilitate this work, and
supply a meta-system through which the organisation's KM needs can be formed.
Our
discussion during 1996 concluded: 'Learning takes place in the work process.' We are of the
opinion that working through a process activity will achieve learning while
doing. Should a routine have to be changed, for example due to new insight, it
can be organised so that 'as is' is exchanged with 'to be' . One consequence of a
new insight can be a revision of the whole work process, removing or adding all
or part of it. Through this work, the operator has learned as he has practiced.
The meta-system gives him a framework in which he can record his
experience.
Information elements linked to the Faros Knowledge Room
From the Knowledge Room
you can, in addition to reaching the Work Process arena, also reach information
relevant to Business Units, such as the Administrative or Technical
Documentation, Learning, Knowledge Village and Networks. These are the core
windows. The respective units may have additional windows such as Technical
Measurement Tools, Good Practice Guides, or Knowledge Mapping documents,
portraying the skills of individual employees.
Faros contains no additional
information outside the work processes and the underlying details created by
users. All other information is routed via the many links in the system from an
original source with a Web interface. From the Work Process position, the
various connections are identified by the users as the process is being
structured. Or, as the work processes are being utilised, relevant new
information will be earmarked for a given process. From time to time, the user
may want to go directly to the information source without going through a work
process. This flexibility - or to the IT buff, redundancy - is an important
element in a knowledge system. Below, the content of some of these other windows
is described.
The Administrative Document navigation
The administrative documents,
operating policies and procedures, are stored in a database called 'Delta' . In
order for us to access this data, we created a Web user interface. The policy
documents have been organised with the requirements of the regulatory
authorities at the top, followed by the corporate requirements, the Business
Unit requirements and the single production unit's requirements in a Web matrix.
In addition, access to various standards and codes is given, such as the
Norwegian Offshore standards, Norsok.
The Technical Documentation
navigation
Statoil has thousands of technical documentation records. Every
platform, pipeline, refinery and petrochemical plant has a set of blueprints
stored. To allow the user to access the relevant document, drawing, or
two-dimensional model, we commissioned a team from the Technical Assistance unit
to prepare a Web user interface between the data-buckets and Faros. This
information is stored in various media forms, and as such needs to be
co-ordinated in a common structure. From a given work process the user may wish
to obtain the relevant drawing, specification, data sheet, or other appropriate
info related to a given piece of equipment.
The Learning and Visualisation
navigation
The Learning and Visualisation section was one of the first concepts
thought of in Faros. Its purpose is to enable the user of a process to obtain
visual or textual illustrations when carrying out difficult-to-grasp operations.
For a sub-surface production unit we built three-dimensional structures and
converted them to virtual reality. We then gave them functions so that users can
twist, turn, strip and rebuild models while engaged in their work process. In a
similar way we created animation for anti-collision drilling, safety requirement
zones and so on. These are just some of the possibilities we wanted the user to
have access to while preparing for a task, either via the work process window,
or directly through the Learning window. It was of particular importance to be
able to illustrate difficult-to-grasp operational situations in conjunction with
work processes or procedures. Through such illustrations, the organisation both
reduced the training time for an operation and maintained a higher level of
security.
The
learning product we built for the drilling unit contained four modules lasting
several hours, and offered an exam and certificate at the end of the programme.
We wanted to develop a learning programme that could also be used for short
refresher updates to be used by the operator in the work process. This turned
out to be a difficult task both administratively and technically. After some
trial and error, we succeeded in developing a learning module, which the users
could connect to for bits of information related to a given work process. This
led us to develop the learning module with finite elements, capable of both
running a full sequence, with a test and certification at the end, or a single
unit for clarification while standing in the flow diagram.
The Knowledge Village
navigation
Our objective in creating the Knowledge Village (in Norwegian we used
the term Knowledge Pier) was to equip the user with a structure to search for
unstructured information. We organised a group to identify how this could be
achieved. Since starting the work on the Knowledge Village in autumn 1996, many
attempts have been made to try and structure the un-structurable. We decided to
try and create a concept based on two elements: a story board and a set of links
to information sources, intelligent agents or other useful data related to the
users' work and areas of interest.
The Knowledge
Village is the purveyor of unstructured information as sought by the user. This
avenue to information has been constructed by the conveyor, who can provide the
user with details of what it contains. However, is not for the conveyor to
second-guess the ultimate requirements of the user, nor the direction from which
he will arrive. While structuring the information available can be important and
useful in many contexts, traditional home pages do not provide a tenable,
painless and secure avenue for the user to find more complex data. A different
approach must be sought from the user's point of view when the requirement for
information is more complex and unpredictable.
By way of an example: Marit, the
subsurface manager of an oil field, needs to solve a standing issue problem
immediately. Her case is apparently unique, and it is therefore not evident who
or what can contribute to new and satisfactory solutions. But though the problem
may seem unusual to the individual at the time, as she has not experienced it
before, it may not be to the organisation as a whole. As a consequence, the
problem can be catalogued and then be subjected to a process type
structure.
Faros
is the user's own window towards unstructured knowledge, adapted to the user's
own requirements. These will vary according to the element of work that is
undertaken. Identifying and describing these requirements for groups of users,
and even for individual users, will be necessary before the operational
environment can be designed. Experience shows that building a required process
is in many cases the start of a creative restructuring of work flows and
business processes. A strong common requirement will be the ability to search
for, capture, share and distribute useful knowledge and to apply it when and
where it will make a difference. Ability and agility in acquiring useful
information helps, both in handling day-to-day tasks and in the case of
unpredictable events.
The concept is based on the potential offered by Web technology to
integrate existing technology, data sources and access mechanisms through
carefully designed workflow management. The basis for our case is a day in the
life of an imaginary team of people working on an oil field asset. A tool for
helping the main character, sub-surface manager Marit, is a structured agenda,
driving her case to a conclusion and recommended action. In addition to her
agenda, she has a search engine, the Corporum, which she can activate as the
need for identifying new and relevant information as it arises. When Marit
arrives at work in the morning, a message from the production manager is waiting
for her. During the night, one of the wells collapsed and stopped producing. Now
she needs a structured work process to secure unstructured information that
will, by the end of the day, provide relevant data leading to a recommended
action to this urgent problem.
This is one aspect of how we may
explore unstructured information in a structured manner. Another way is using
the Knowledge Village to tie into the world's knowledge sites. We are talking of
being able to tap into the pursuit of knowledge from any learning institution.
Through a pre-planned and organised learning system, the company can identify
those learning organisations relating to the company's activities that may offer
the best training ground through E-learning.
The first courses for the Faros
computer based distant learning concept were to be in core areas such as field
operations, Health, Environment and Safety (HES), sub-sea technologies, field
development, Total Quality Management (TQM) and so on. Through co-operation
agreements with external units of expertise, employees could tap into course
materials and lectures at will and on demand. Connecting the learning to a work
activity would enhance the learning experience.
Together with Professor Rolf Lenschow, former
chancellor of the Norwegian University of Technology and Science in Trondheim
(NTNU) and his team, we developed the 'Virtual Learning Lab' . The
first project was a TQM course. Through an external link to the university, we
were able to establish an electronic learning arena for the employees to link
into at will. The professors could go into the lab, leave their lectures and
pick up the student reports. Unfortunately, as the programme was put into
action, the participating employees dropped out because they were overwhelmed by
the Web technology. The experience is important, however, and offers a valuable
lesson, now that the technology has become more accessible.
Ove Rustung Hjelmervik is Project
Manager of Faros Knowledge Management System. He can be contacted at:hjel@statoil.com
Coming in part three of the Faros series
...
As
well as discussing the technology behind the Faros Knowledge Management System,
Ove Rustung Hjelmervik describes the transition from developing Faros KMS to
implementing it in the Statoil work environment. In addition, he reports on how
the Statoil team evaluated the experience of Statoil employees in using the
system.
