Double cycle KCS. Just about knowledge management.

This article is a continuation of the previous article , which was the announcement of the approach to knowledge management in the company according to the KCS methodology. In short, a brief definition was given, the results that KCS implementation gives, and the main idea of ​​KCS - knowledge management through a double cycle were announced. About him today and will be discussed. I will try to convey ideas as simply and briefly as possible, because I don’t want to reprint the original manual on practical use (practice guide), and there are as many as 184 pages. And all important!

Glossary

Long thought how to translate practices and techniques from English. As a result, he stopped at the "Practice" and "Receptions". So it seemed more harmonious.

So what is a double cycle?

Before turning to the processes themselves, I would like to indicate what KCS is knowledge or, in other words, what types of intellectual assets (knowledge assets in the original) can be distinguished. According to KCS, there are 4 types:

1. Article in the knowledge base. In fact, this is the experience gained during the work of the organization's support service. Articles help solve problems.
2. Employee profiles. This is information about the employee’s experience, skills, interests and reputation.
3. Information about customers. For example, the business model of the client, the goals of the organization. The more complete the company profile, the better.
4. Client software configuration.

Today, KCS describes the work with the first type. The following versions of the methodology will affect the remaining 3 types, but for the time being it should be understood that everything described above applies primarily to articles.
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So a double cycle includes a decision cycle and a development cycle. Not very clear, right? If you disclose each concept, the decision cycle is about what actions the employee must take, what to solve the user's problem. And the development cycle is about how to maintain and develop KCS so that it works only better, faster and more qualitatively. I remind you that my interpretation is very free. I decided that this method of filing is better than the literal translation of the original, which, by the way, you can always get acquainted with.

Each of the two cycles includes 4 practices, and each practice contains specific techniques. From 2 to 8. We will list the practices, but of course we will not analyze the techniques.

Decision cycle

The decision cycle consists of 4 practices:

1. Knowledge gathering during the work process;
2. Knowledge structuring;
3. Reuse;
4. Continuous improvement.

In KCS, it is extremely important to document the problem right away, it’s better right away when talking to the user. So the problem will be described by the client. Even if it is still unknown whether the problem will be solved, the article describing this problem should already be available to everyone. According to KCS, this approach helps to identify the so-called hidden knowledge.

Structuring articles, their proper organization helps to navigate the article, improves the perception of the article. This is achieved primarily using templates. Those. Each article in the structure should be similar, each type of article can develop its own template. When everyone gets used to the format, it will become much easier to search for information. In its simplest form, the structure of an article can consist of a description of the problem, a description of the environment, a solution, and metadata. Bugs also describe the whole art . How is the article worse?

Reuse is the cornerstone of creating a knowledge base. After all, no one needs an article to which no one will ever refer. However, the problem is that at the time of creating the article it is not clear whether it will be in demand. Therefore, one of the clever tricks that can help is saving search queries. Everyone remembers the silent rule of git "commit early, commit often" . Here is the same thing, just about the search. "Search early, search often." The best practice is to search directly at the time of communication with the client.

Continuous improvement is perhaps the most understandable item from the list. Articles must be constantly updated and supplemented. For example, if you notice an inaccuracy in some article, you need to at least mark it, and how to fix it as much as possible. This also includes working with duplicate articles. Articles, like the code, must be able to correctly merdzhit.

One important rule passes through all the practices of the decision cycle:

collective ownership.

The idea is simple: “If I use an article, I am responsible for its quality.”

Development cycle

The development cycle also consists of 4 practices:

1. Relevance and quality of content;
2. Process integration;
3. Efficiency mark;
4. Leadership and communication.

KCS has come up with a very cool term “health content”, incorporating into it a whole range of characteristics that any article in the knowledge base should correspond to. For example, a glossary of terms must be entered so that the same things are not called by different names. The knowledge base should not contain duplicate articles. For articles, templates should be created, and examples of well-designed articles should be shown. This is one of the most important points in KCS. It includes 8 different techniques. In principle, if your company already has a knowledge base in any form, then after reading this chapter in the original, you can find a lot of interesting things for implementation.

As for the integration of processes, this is the most problematic item. The basic idea is that your service desk system should be integrated with a knowledge management system. As an example, if an article in the knowledge base and a specific application to the service desk can be cited by the “solved by” link, then we have a good tool for assessing the quality of the article. T. e. How many times this article has helped in solving a specific problem. Even better, if the knowledge base is integrated with your messenger. Remember how often you had to use the search in your corporate messenger to find a advice or recommendation from a colleague? And it's good if it's slack, not skype.

In the last paragraph, we have already led one of the ways to assess the quality of articles. In fact, KQS even introduces a special metric AQI - the quality index of articles. Also, in order for KCS to work, you need to additionally evaluate the effectiveness of employees. Find them and encourage them. This may be the introduction of gamification in your knowledge management system, but it is better if it is some kind of material encouragement. Also at this point, KCS developers strongly recommend using a balanced scorecard .

Leadership and communication is already quite about management and work with staff. Employees need to be motivated in some way to use the knowledge base and contribute to it. Inside the company, teamwork should be promoted, programs of rewards and awards should be introduced. Great emphasis should be placed on internal communications. And yes, the vision of the company, its mission - it's all here.

Instead of the total

Having written only a paragraph about each of the recommended practices that KCS includes, it begins to seem that KCS is huge and immense. I think that this is the way it is, but in my opinion, its advantage is that you can take some of its parts and try to introduce them in your organization. Plus KCS is a good example of “how else can it be.” You can not step on a rake and quickly achieve better quality in work.

Practical examples

In the last article I was asked where to read about the introduction of KCS. There are public examples in Russia. Here is the Parallels experience - http://netology.ru/blog/parallels-support