Anyone have insight on Knowledge Management

[mhock]

I am not certain this is the right place.  I am looking for insight on how people structure their knowledge management team as well as how the structure their knowledge base software.

Any insight is greatly appreciated!

[Wendy_S]

Hi @mhock 

I am not certain either. But your question is a little bare. Perhaps you can give a little more context of what it is you are looking for, or maybe some concrete questions.

We at HP have a knowledge & training organization/team but they are separate from Communities. Are you looking for the RACI within a knowledge team? It also depend on the scope of the knowledgeteam.

Some more specific information would be helpful for others to chime in here 😉

[mhock]

@Wendy_S ,

I am actually asking for a peer that is not part of our Community team.   I do believe that something like a RACI would be very helpful.  The understanding of what roles contribute and how is a great start. 

Hope this clarifies.

[JakeR]

I know that, historically, knowledge management teams that interact with the community (either creating, editing, and publishing their own TKB articles, or doing the same thing for the articles that are submitted and/or gleaned from the community) tend to be broken into 4 general functions.  Though those 4 functions could actually only be 1 person...or they could be 4 people.  Here is what I have seen:

Creative - This is the function of either crafting the 1st draft or, in a TKB context, gathering the submissions and perhaps starting work on a 1st draft.  I consider this person to be at the 'front lines' or 'in the trenches' with the material.  Sometimes they are quite junior in the organization (like an intern), but sometimes they are just a highly motivated Developer or Support Agent that really wants to get into the guts of solving a problem, and sees a KB article as the way to get there

Editor - This function is somebody that, traditionally, is a technical writer.  They might normally have skills in doing copy for Marketing, or they may be more at home writing documents for the company's products.  Either way, this is role that may not be technical (in the software sense, other than using MS-Word, etc), but they do take the time work with Creative and QA to make sure that the spirit of the article is correct, and that, conceptually, the content can be understood by the widest range of people possible

Quality Assurance - This function is sometimes shouldered by the Editor, Creative, or the Publisher (see below).  The facts and the figures of the article are double-checked.  Also, this function tends to also be saddled with the updating older articles when new versions of products or services are released that may impact the accuracy of prior articles

Publisher - The final gate.  Not only do they 'push the button' to have the article reach publication, but they are a final gut check on 3 components of the article:

*Relevancy

*Accuracy

*Branding

Now, again, this is just what I have seen (and how I have put it together in my mind) with how brands have used our Tribal Knowledge Base (TKB).  I am not an expert in any of these fields.  However, I do know two of them. 🙂  I am going to send up a bat-signal for them now.... @SuzieH  @johndowden @JohnD 

[JohnD]

Bat signal seen, @JakeR. 

@mhock - There are a variety of strategies you/your company can take here, and there are a lot of variables:

• How are your knowledge creators organized in the company (product, user experience, support, combo of all)?
• How big is your team? Do they have specialized content roles (like Jake describes above or are your writers one-person shops)
• What are your goals with regard to your proactive and reactive content?
• How much content do you have and of what types (conceptual, how-tos, FAQs, tips and best practices.

I'd be happy to set up some time to discuss in more detail and understand the use case better. Shoot me a Private Message, if you'd like to discuss in more detail.

[jmuzzana]

I agree with others that there a lot of variations that can define your strategy and structure; e.g. size of company, volume of deliverables, size of content inventory, size of team, etc. 

As @Wendy_S mentioned, at HP, the Knowledge Management team is separate from the Communities team. I previously worked in the Knowledge Management team before coming over to Communities. For content creation, there are a variety of roles:

• Quality Lead / portfolio manager -- this person manages the overall content inventory, defines quality improvement projects, defines content plans for new products, etc.
• Developmental Editor - this is the lead editor that works with all of the technical writers. The editor provides guidance on styles & standards and is the last person to review content in the workflow
• Technical Writers - creates content

These roles are then focused on specific product segments. 

Do you have specific questions on knowledge base software?