Knowledge Management: Best Practices

March 12, 2002

KM is not software you install (though vendors think it is); its a process that doesnt begin with IT and doesnt end with it. Remember that IT is merely plumbing.
Get users involved from Day One. A KM system is useless if employees dont contribute.
Isolate who knows what in an organization by systematically interviewing knowledge workers.
Divide and conquer: Associate KM with a specific business practice and grow it from there. Dont go for an all-encompassing solution–these look good only on paper.
Tighten up security and educate users on safety issues. A KM system in the hands of the wrong person can be extremely dangerous, not only because of the threat of data theft but also because of potential data corruption.
Devise a system that extracts and packages knowledge from the forms in which its actually used, rather than one that requires separate creation and maintenance of a dedicated parallel knowledge base. The latter makes for a quicker pilot project, but it will rarely be maintained once the novelty wears off.
Consider but dont rely on, third-party benchmarking solutions, such as PIMS (www.bintranets.com).
Continually solicit feedback to improve the system over time.