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KM Process:

 

Knowledge can be tacit or explicit; tacit knowledge is personal and context specific while explicit knowledge is more formal.  A customer focused organization utilizes the knowledge it contains, and develops it as a competitive advantage. The value of knowledge management lies in making tacit knowledge widely available in an organization.  “These are challenging issues for leaders because business management and training in the past has focused on the management of physical assets and not on the management of intangible assets such as intellectual property. This is a greater challenge because knowledge assets underpin core competencies that determine the quality of the delivery of products and services to customers in the market”.

 Knowledge Management activities comprise knowledge creation, knowledge codification and location and knowledge transfer. The five modes of knowledge creation are as follows:

·         Acquisition

·         Dedicated resources

·         Fusion

·         Adaptation

·         Knowledge networking

Codification and location involve converting knowledge into an organized, easy-to-understand form and making it accessible by providing knowledge maps.  Transfer of knowledge may take place across two dimensions, ontological and epistemological”.  

To develop a Knowledge Management System, the initial steps during the brainstorming portion of the KMS creation process are:

1.      To commit to the development of this new economy strategic asset.

2.      Gain the commitment of all organizational members to create a knowledge management initiative.

3.      Provide the resources to ensure the successful completion of the initiative.

4.       Ensuring adequate funding.

5.      Determine if internal or external resources to gather the organizational knowledge are needed.

6.      Research the IT/IS resources necessary to create a knowledge management system.

During the decision making process to create a knowledge management system (intelligence, design, choice, and implementation), the organization must insure the outcome of their investment in creating a knowledge management system is deemed a knowledge-value and that it can be utilized by all members of the organization, internally and externally.

The K-Audit (Knowledge Audit) is the first step in identifying the knowledge value that exists in the organization and B2B elements. The K-Audit discovers the informal and formal lines of communication and the tacit/explicit knowledge people share throughout the organization and B2B elements.    

 Once the K-Audit of the organization is complete, the corporation can determine the knowledge value contained within the enterprise. During the implementation process, all employees can offer feedback to help create a metric to quantify, measure, and assess the tacit and explicit knowledge collected. The industry standard KMS system implementation follows the 10-Step Roadmap to KM: 

STEP 1: Analyze the existing infrastructure: = PHASE 1 INFRASTRUCTURE EVALUATION 

  1. Understand the role of your company's existing networks, Intranet and extranets in knowledge management.
  2. Understand the knowledge management technology framework and its components.
  3. Analyze, leverage and build upon data mining, data warehousing, project management and DSS tools that are already in place.
  4. Understand how knowledge servers work and help in enterprise integration.
  5. Integrate existing Intranets, extranets and GroupWare into your knowledge management system.
  6. Perform a preliminary analysis of business needs that match up with relevant knowledge server choices.
  7. Understand the limitations of implemented tools and identify gaps in your the existing infrastructure.
  8. Take concrete steps to leverage and build upon existing infrastructural investments.

 

STEP 2: Align knowledge management and business strategy = PHASE 1 INFRASTRUCTURE EVALUATION 

  1. Shift KM in your company from strategic programming to strategic planning.

  2. Perform a knowledge-based SWOT analysis in your company.

  3. Create knowledge maps: Internal, competitive, and industry wide.

  4. Analyze knowledge gaps and relate them to strategic gaps.

  5. Determine whether a codification or personalization focus is better suited for your company.

  6. Balance exploitation and exploration, and JIT and JIC delivery using your KMS.

  7. Incorporate the 24 critical success factors in KM design.

  8. Determine the right diagnostic questions to ask.

  9. Mobilize initiatives to help you "sell" your KM project internally.

  10. Diagnose and validate your strategy-KM link.

  11. Translate your strategy-KM link to KM system design characteristics.

 

STEP 3: Design the knowledge management infrastructure = PHASE 2 ANALYSIS, DESIGN, DEPLOYMENT 

  1. Choose IT components to find, create, assemble and apply knowledge.
  2. Identify elements of the interface layer: Clients, server, gateways and the platform.
  3. Decide on the collaborative platform: Web or Notes?
  4. Identify and understand components of the collaborative intelligence layer: Artificial intelligence, data warehouses, genetic algorithms, neural networks, expert reasoning systems, rule bases and case-based reasoning.
  5. Optimize knowledge object molecularity; balance cost versus value-added.
  6. Balance push-based and pull-based knowledge delivery.
  7. Identify the right mix of components for searching, indexing and retrieval.
  8. Create knowledge tags and attributes: Domain, form, type, product/service, and time and location tags.

STEP 4: Audit existing knowledge assets and systems = PHASE 2 ANALYSIS, DESIGN, DEPLOYMENT 

  1. Understand the purpose of a knowledge audit.
  2. Use Bohn’s Stages of Knowledge Growth framework to measure knowledge.
  3. Identify, evaluate, and rate critical process knowledge.
  4. Select an audit method.
  5. Congregate a preliminary knowledge audit team.
  6. Audit and analyze your company’s existing knowledge.
  7. Identify your company’s K-spot.
  8. Choose a strategic position for your knowledge management system.

STEP 5: Design the knowledge management team = PHASE 2 ANALYSIS, DESIGN, DEPLOYMENT 

  1. Design the KM team.
  2. Identify sources of requisite expertise.
  3. Identify critical points of failure: requirements, control, management buy-in, and end user buy-in.
  4. Structure the knowledge management team: organizationally, strategically and techno-logically.
  5. Balance technical and managerial expertise, manage stakeholder expectations.
  6. Resolve team-sizing issues.

STEP 6: Create the knowledge management blueprint = PHASE 2 ANALYSIS, DESIGN, DEPLOYMENT 

  1. Develop the knowledge management architecture.
  2. Understand and select the architectural components.
  3. Design for high levels of interoperability.
  4. Optimize for performance and scalability.
  5. Understand repository life-cycle management.
  6. Understand and incorporate requisite user interface considerations.
  7. Position and scope the knowledge management system.
  8. Make the build-or-buy decision and understand the trade-offs.
  9. Future-proof the knowledge management system.

STEP 7: Develop the knowledge management system = PHASE 2 ANALYSIS, DESIGN, DEPLOYMENT 

  1. Define the capabilities of each layer of the seven-layer knowledge management system architecture in the context of your company.
  2. Develop the interface layer: Create platform independence, leverage the Intranet, enable universal authorship, and optimize video.
  3. Develop the access and authentication layer: Secure data, control access, and distribute control
  4. Develop the collaborative filtering and intelligence layer.
  5. Develop and integrate the application layer with the intelligence layer and the transport layer.
  6. Leverage the extant transport layer.
  7. Develop the middleware and legacy integration layer to connect mainframe legacy data, incompatible platforms, inconsistent data formats and retired systems
  8. Integrate and enhance the repository layer.
  9. Apply DMA and WebDAV standards to explicit content and documents.
  10. Advance the system from a client/server to agent computing orientation.

STEP 8: Deploy using the results driven incremental methodology = PHASE 2 ANALYSIS, DESIGN, DEPLOYMENT 

  1. Make an informed decision about the need for a pilot knowledge management deployment.
  2. Select the right, nontrivial and representative pilot project.
  3. Identify and isolate failure points in pilot projects.
  4. Understand the knowledge management system life cycle.
  5. Understand the scope of knowledge management system deployment.
  6. Use the RDI methodology to deploy the system.
  7. Identify and avoid the traps in the RDI methodology to maximize payoff.

 STEP 9: Manage change, culture and reward structures = PHASE 3 DEPLOYMENT 

  1. Understand what exactly is a Chief Knowledge Officer’s (CKO) role.
  2. Understand how a CKO is related to the CIO, CFO and CEO.
  3. Decide whether your company needs to have an “actual” CKO at all.
  4. Understand the successful CKO’s technological and organizational functions.
  5. Plan for knowledge management success using the CKO as an agent for selling fore-sight.
  6. Manage and implement cultural change and process triggers to make knowledge management succeed.
  7. Implement reward structures to complement successful knowledge management.

 STEP 10: Evaluate performance, select metrics, measure ROI = PHASE 4 EVALUATION

  1. Use real options for evaluation
  2. Calculate returns-on-investment (ROI) for knowledge management investments.
  3. Evaluate benchmarking as a comparative knowledge metric.
  4. Evaluate knowledge management ROI by using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) method.
  5. Use Quality Function Deployment for creating strategic knowledge metrics.
  6. Identify what not to measure.
  7. Understand alternative metrics such as the Skandia Navigator and the FASB approach.
  8. Classify and evaluate processes using The APQC Process Classification Framework.
  9. Review and select software tools for tracking complex metrics, QFDs and BSCs.

 

 

 

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Last modified: October 28, 2007