IMBOK - History


Background

An early workshop laying foundations for the IMBOK

In 2002, 72 people in Cape Town met and worked on the problems of achieving efficiency and effectiveness in information systems management, representing education, research, business and government. This laid foundations and established purpose for a research project launched in 2002 by the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, to whom we express our appreciation. This part of the research was undertaken in partnership with Cape Peninsula University of Technology (then the Cape Technikon).

The Information Management Body of Knowledge (IMBOK) emerged from this research. It was first published as a free web download in 2004, and since then there has been extended work on a technique to survey organisational competencies to manage information well. In january 2015 - ten years after the original handbook, a book "Investing in Information: The Information Body of Knowledge" was published by Springer and has received excellent reviews. Support for the IMBOK on the web has been available for much of the intervening time, and this new web was published at the start of 2017

It is necessary to acknowledge the interest and support of the many local South African organisations - too many to list here - that supported the early research workshops. We hope that this web provides them with useful assistance: getting started with information management, and improving the prospects of success with information systems investments.

Some of the ideas, tools and techniques presented here originate from work over the last fifteen years within the Information Systems Group at the Cranfield School of Management, in the United Kingdom. Acknowledgements are due to Chris Edwards, John Ward, Joe Peppard and Rob Lambert, and the many others who have worked with this group over the years. It is through their efforts that many of these ideas have emerged and prevailed, and it is hoped that this presentation of them, within a more ordered framework of management thinking than has been available before and in conjunction with other relevant ideas, will help the wider community to understand, adopt and enjoy working with this new toolkit.

Having said that, any residual errors or omissions may be laid at my door, and I look forward to receiving comments and suggestions that will improve this work.

The Information Management research team

Bennett Alexander
Marcel Berteler
Denise Biggs
Sipokazi Bukani
Geoff Erwin
Yvette Goussard
Ray Hackney
Fahrnaaz Johadien
Derek Keats
Munira Khatieb
Wouter Kritzinger
Bongazana Mahlangu
Johann Mouton
Constance Mtsweni
Sydwell Nikani
Karolina O’Donoghue
Rashied Scello
Kobus Smit
Thoko Speelman
Peter Thomas
Sibongiseni Tunzelana
Melius Weideman
Grafton Whyte
Lauren Wildschutz

Thanks, everyone!