This thesis sets out to examine the scope for integrated knowledge based planning systems. Five planning departments in the South East Midlands of the UK have been investigated through environmental appraisal, conceptual modelling and empirical evidence gathering. The results of analyses suggest a number of configurations, which could provide reformation instruments in the context of technological innovation, social coordination and knowledge management for sustainable development. This research study provided the insights and learning into how to successfully develop and implement an integrated knowledge based planning system. The primary aspiration of this research was to develop a robust pragmatic framework to support an efficient and effective delivery of the planning system in the UK local government towards sustainable development. A mixed research methodology was employed for the research fieldwork. Firstly, an extensive review of literature took place to summarise and synthesise the arguments of the key research propositions contributing to the development of an integrated knowledge based planning system. Secondly, exploratory fieldwork took place as an appropriate methodology in this study, applying the semi-structured interview and questionnaire techniques to gather data from senior level planning officials who were directly involved in the planning system transformation. This study was initiated by examining the previous planning environment in the UK local government and its transformation from its conventional state to a contemporary emergent state. The fieldwork was carried out to identify the key supportive and preventive knowledge factors for both explicit and tacit knowledge domains. As a result, the nature of successful technology based initiatives was determined and solutions to the possible emerging challenges were appraised.

As the practice of software engineering matures, project teams are leveraging the expertise of those with a background in other disciplines such as user experience. This multidisciplinary collaboration has implications on how user experience is incorporated into the software they produce. It also has consequences for the interaction within the team. This research aims to address the implications and consequences by explaining and evaluating the impact of socio-cognitive factors and governance forms on agile user experience software teams. The objective is to support multidisciplinary agile user experience software teams in managing their interaction as a means to improving how user experience knowledge is managed. Results from a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) were that: a combination of trust and shared meaning are associated with the impediment of knowledge construction and dissemination; a combination of lead governance, trust, and shared meaning are associated with knowledge dissemination; and a combination of lead governance and shared meaning are associated with the impediment of knowledge use. Review from an expert review of the Team Interaction Framework were that there are benefits to using the framework and ways to ease it use, but also limitations and anticipated challenges to its application. The findings from this research suggest that each theoretical component of the framework is relevant, but it is unclear whether the structural dimension is useful when studying agile user experience teams given environment similarity across teams. The contributions of this research are the Team Interaction Framework as a guide to evaluating the social interaction in agile user experience teams, a method for assessing the social interaction in agile user experience teams via a Team Interaction Assessment, and lightweight practices for improving the social interaction in these teams. / Ph. D.