Document-driven management of knowledge and technology transfer: Denmark´s CIM/GEMS project in computer-integrated manufacturing. II

For pt.I see ibid., vol.32, no.2, p.83-93 (1991). The authors explore the two-year Danish CIM/GEMS project in computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) at the Technical University of Denmark to show how writing is an act of technology and knowledge representation, a vehicle of their transfer to a user community, and, if successful, an accommodation of technology to its users. They address creators and users of system documentation who need documentation for CIM implementation. The authors argue that documentation is often better for representing and explaining a CIM system than the actual system itself, and they recommend that documentation production be viewed not as a separate, end-of-project activity but as an integrated part of technical development. Planned and regular documentation production can in fact be a stimulus and aid to technical development, possibly even shortening the project life cycle