Acknowledgements

The "Information Management Body of Knowledge" (IMBOK) emerged from 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 Technikon (now the Cape Peninsula University of Technology).  

We wish 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 text provides them with some assistance, in terms of 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".

Finally, I must thank those closer to me: my wife Ann for undertaking constructive criticism and proofreading, and the research team at UWC and Cape Technikon (see below).

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.

Andy Bytheway
Cape Town, July 2004

The "Information Management" research team

The following have worked with or within the research team at one point or another:

Thanks, everyone!