Projectability and Heritage Management of Design Knowledge: A Grass-Roots Artefact Perspective of a Longitudinal Research Project for Knowledge Management System Innovation

This article expands on design science-research (DSR) publications which—based on current knowledge management systems (KM/KMS) and practices—are conceptualizing and prototyping a novel more generative and knowledge-worker-centric approach just presented as a desirable sustainable KMS vision. The perspective taken follows up on recent systematic literature reviews and content analysis studies reporting on the poor knowledge accumulation and evolution in the design, information science, and KM disciplines. Proposed remedies and initiatives are pitched against the novel KMS development case with its longitudinal stream of research output. As the design and creation of complex innovative artefacts facing ‘wicked’ challenges are seldom complemented by concurrent research papers, rare insights are offered of how similar longitudinal DSR or KMS projects may be structured and of how the related domain’s heritage knowledge base and its fitness-for-use-and-evolution may be strengthened. Due to the cycles and progression of its prior publications, this case study is particularly suited to contribute to cumulative research synthesis and, hence, further focusses on the recently proposed notions of projecting and projectability for evaluating distances between actual real-world environments and future possible-world application-ecosystems—a perspective which may become essential acceptance criteria for publishing in DSR-related conferences and journal publishing outlets.