The Knowledge Infrastructure:

The Knowledge Management Maturity Model: A stage framework for leveraging knowledge.

A Vision of an organization that enables Knowledge Management:

To be an organization, where every action is fully enabled by the power of knowledge; which truly believes in leveraging knowledge for innovation; where every employee is empowered by the knowledge of every other employee; which is a globally respected knowledge leader. A “knowledge leader” is an organization which is acknowledged to have an ability to master knowledge in diverse areas that is worth emulating; an organization that others look up to when they are at a loss as to how to manage in an unfamiliar area.

KMM – Knowledge Management Maturity Model:

Knowledge Management in organization is evolutionary. The KRAs of the KMM Model are People Process and Technology.

In KMM, each level has a set of prerequisites the organization is required to meet. At a given maturity level, it implies a certain level of organizational capability. Each maturity level is characterized in terms of the efficiency of each stage of the knowledge life cycle,

Knowledge Acquisition, Knowledge Dissemination, Knowledge Reuse.

Level – Organization Capability Mapping:

Level Capability

1 Default Undefined

2 Reactive Basic repeatability

3 Aware Restricted data-driven decision-making.

Restricted leverage of internal expertise.

Ability to manage virtual teams well.

4 Convinced Quantitative decision-making.

High leverage of internal and external expertise.

Productivity benefits through knowledge sharing.

Proactive change response.

5 Sharing Strong ROI-driven decision-making.

High ability to leverage new ideas for business advantage.

Ability to shape change in technology and business environment.

Level 1: Default

• Conviction in anything other than survival-level tasks low.
• Belief in formal training being the sole mechanism for learning ; all learning is reactive
• Organization’s knowledge is fragmented in isolated pockets, and stays in people’s heads.
• “Knowledge, we’ve got plenty of – what we need is to work hard!”

Level 2: Reactive

• The organization shares knowledge purely on need basis
• Routine and procedural knowledge shared.
• “We need to leverage all our knowledge, but we’re too busy to do that”

Knowledge Awareness (People)

• Awareness of knowledge as a resource that must be managed explicitly (“somebody-else-should-do-it” syndrome!)
• Senior management recognizes need for formal knowledge management.
• Knowledge ‘database administrator’ role

Content Capture (Process)

• Knowledge indispensable for routine tasks is documented.
• Database of knowledge exists (usually disparate formats)
• Content compilation done reasonably well but creation still ad-hoc
• Content management responsibility dispersed through organization.

Basic Information Management (Technology)

• Rudimentary knowledge-recording systems in existence in diverse data formats, fragmented data, low data integrity, high data obsolescence
• Systems support routine and procedural sharing.
• Online and technology-based learning mechanisms put in place - largely reactively.

Level 3: Aware

• Content fit for use for all functions; knowledge meets need
• Beginnings of integrated approach to managing knowledge life-cycle.
• Enterprise-wide knowledge-propagation systems in existence – awareness and maintenance are moderate.
• Internal expertise is leveraged in technologically complex and unfamiliar areas, or where it is imperative.
• The organization collects and understands metrics for KM; KM activities begin to be translated into productivity gains
• Managers recognize role in, and encourage, knowledge-sharing.
• The organization is able to see a link between KM processes and results.
• “At least we’ve made a beginning in managing our knowledge”

Central Knowledge Organization (People)

• Dedicated KM group for infrastructure management and content management.
• Processes and roles well-defined not below CMM level 4.

Knowledge Education (People)

• Training in KM processes for KM group;
• Formal training program for contributors, users, facilitators, champions, etc. with feedback.

Content Structure Management (Process)

• Ability to structure, categorize, access content
• Integrated logical content architecture exists.
• Knowledge content is augmented with pointers to people.
• Knowledge is structured
• a taxonomy of knowledge topics
• Content management process defined: creation, editing, streamlining, publishing, certification and maintenance
• Process is owned by a central knowledge organization.

Knowledge Technology Infrastructure (Technology)

• Single-point access to knowledge available across the organization (the knowledge is not integrated –only access is available)

Level 4: Convinced

• Enterprise-wide knowledge-sharing systems in place – quality, currency, utility, usage high
• Knowledge processes scaled up across the organization.
• Organizational boundaries breakdown as knowledge barriers
• Quantification of benefits of knowledge sharing and reuse at org unit level – business impact clearly recognized
• Feedback loops are qualitatively better and tighter.
• Ability to sense and respond proactively to environmental changes
• “We’ve reached where we are by managing our knowledge well, and we intend to keep it that way”

Customized Enabling (People)

• Training (all modes) available at time and point of need

Knowledge Infrastructure Management (Technology)

• Technology infrastructure for knowledge-sharing is seamless; the knowledge content is integrated into a whole.

Content Enlivenment (Process)

• Content enlivened with expertise;
• Experts across organization committed to respond
• High sync between knowledge in, knowledge out
• Knowledge Configuration Management (Process)
• Organization-wide process for integrating and managing the knowledge content configuration.
• Knowledge life-cycle processes are mapped er access in pull mode

Quantitative Knowledge Management (Process)

• Knowledge creation, sharing reuse levels are measured quantitatively. Variance across the organization low.
• Benefits of knowledge sharing and reuse at the individual project / function level quantified.
• Capability baselines are created and used.
• Content management process uses quantitative data.

A few examples of knowledge metrics:

• The percentage of content used within different time frames;
• The time lag between entry and use of content
• Quality ratings for the content in terms of universally recognized 'currency' units
• Similar metrics exist to measure the performance of the infrastructure, the response quality of experts, and the “expertise” component of content.

Level 5: Sharing

• Culture of sharing institutionalized; sharing becomes second nature to all.
• Organizational boundaries irrelevant
• Knowledge ROI integral to decision-making
• Continuous tweaking of the kdge processes
• Ability to shape environmental change; organization becomes a knowledge leader
• “We’re sharing knowledge across the organization, and are proud of it”

This is the highest level of maturity of the sharing process, as true sharing requires a judicious mix of synchronous and asynchronous mechanisms, to achieve significant gains with optimal utilization of experts’ time.

Expertise Integration

• Content and (human) expertise available as an integral package: Appropriate expertise is available to help understand content and tailor it to specific need.

Knowledge Leverage

• Ability to measure contribution of knowledge to competence.
• Availability of knowledge inputs needed to perform tasks is guaranteed in quantitative terms.
• Knowledge processes continuously tweaked: performance measures used to improve content management and technology infrastructure.

Innovation Management

• Organization has the ability to assimilate, use and innovate based on ideas both external and internal. Processes exist for leveraging new ideas for business advantage.
• Knowledge base considerations explicitly used in taking on a new customer / project

KMM

• Assessing the maturity level of IT for KM
• Multiple perspectives – Knowledge Assessment, Knowledge Sharing, Knowledge Reuse.
• A mechanism to focus, and help prioritize, efforts to raise the level of maturity.