New product development success largely depends on the ability to combine newly acquired information on customer demands and technological options with knowledge that exists within the company. Project organization and high employee turnover, however, make it difficult to be informed about what knowledge is available within the company and to access it successfully. Knowledge maps, a popular concept in present knowledge management, offer a possible solution by ?guiding the way to knowledge?. Their purpose, structure and content varies greatly, as does their ability to capture different aspects of knowledge. This paper investigates the theoretical basis of different types of knowledge maps and investigates their applicability in development projects.