Tech by LLM
Laura L Martin
Blog by LLM
The Undocumented
An essay on KM best practices
When building a knowledge management strategy, it is critical to factor in “The Undocumented.”
While all categories of information and knowledge are important, the undocumented knowledge category - if left unaddressed - can be the most costly, in terms of time and dollars lost.
Examples of undocumented knowledge and its repercussions:
The history of “how we got here.”
Why are things done this way?
What were the previous design decisions that led to a process or procedure or choice?
Were those decisions the only ones available at the time?
Are they still valid? If so, explain why.
This prevents newer team members from attempting to “reinvent the wheel,” only to discover that they encounter the same problems or make the same mistakes as those in the past.
It also helps to see where certain reinventions and reengineering can make a difference, by ruling out what has been tried in the past, and/or considering new tools that have become available since those past decisions.
Document this knowledge and store it in a Design Information folder or hierarchy, in your repository of choice.
“Call Joe to walk you through that process.”
Joe walks every newbie through a particular process because the process is not documented anywhere.
Joe spends time (that cannot be billed to a client, or perhaps not even to a specific internal project), each week or each month, performing a task that may be just as effective (or more so) when conveyed in writing and/or an instructional video.
Set up newbies for quicker ramp-up and success by capturing knowledge of how-to's that currently reside only in the heads of a few people.
Document this knowledge and store it in your Process Information folder or hierarchy, in your repository of choice.
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