Knowledge Auditing: Methods and Issues

1. Knowledge Auditing:Methods and Issues SSP/AKT Meeting

2. AKT Knowledge Auditing • AKT project concerned with knowledge management. • In order to be able to manage it, we first need to identify it… • …which is the purpose of a knowledge audit. SSP/AKT Meeting

3. Knowledge Audit Definitions • “Knowledge audit: characterising, locating & assessing knowledge assets”. • “A knowledge audit answers the questions ‘What do we know?’ and ‘Where does this knowledge reside?’ ” • “A formal determination and evaluation of how and where knowledge is used in business processes.” • “A process to determine how information is collected, stored and reported, and how the reports are used.” • “An assessment of an organization’s current achievements in Knowledge Management, its current Knowledge Ecology, and the mapping of available Tacit and Explicit Knowledge resources.” SSP/AKT Meeting

4. Knowledge Value Added Methodology (BPA) • KVA is “a framework for measuring the value of corporate knowledge assets.” • 7-stage audit methodology. • Based upon the identification of the ‘core’ business processes. • Supported by a suite of software tools. SSP/AKT Meeting

5. KVA Methodology • Valuation expressed in terms of 2 return ratios: • Return on investment in process (ROP). • Return on investment in knowledge (ROK). • Amount of knowledge is proportional to: • amount of time needed to learn it. • number of instructions required to perform process. SSP/AKT Meeting

6. KVA Methodology • Identify processes (and sub-processes). • Establish standard unit of ‘learning time’. • Calculate learning time required for each (sub-)process. • Sample the organisation’s product/service outputs within a ‘representative’ time-frame. SSP/AKT Meeting

7. KVA Methodology • Multiply the learning time for each process by the number of times process executed. • Allocate revenue to component processes in proportion to their values from (5). • Calculate the cost to execute each component process, calculate ROP/ROK. SSP/AKT Meeting

8. KVA Methodology - Example SSP/AKT Meeting

9. Structural Knowledge Auditing • AKRI (developed as part of a wider KM project with the support of BAe). • Project aim is to “bring the knowledge asset into the open so that it can be managed just like any other resource”. • The Structural Knowledge Audit is the first step in this process. SSP/AKT Meeting

10. Structural Knowledge Auditing Aim is to elicit: • the structure (“a label and possibly a brief description”) of the knowledge, but not its detail, and; • the dependent relationships of this knowledge: • “What do you need to know before you can acquire this new knowledge?” SSP/AKT Meeting

11. Structural Knowledge Auditing • Also for each knowledge item, provide some indication (scale 0-9) of following: • Importance. • Difficulty. • Degree to which knowledge is declarative. • Degree to which knowledge is procedural. SSP/AKT Meeting

12. Structural Knowledge Auditing • Result: a knowledge map, showing relationships between knowledge items, and their characteristics. SSP/AKT Meeting

13. KM2 Approach • The Delphi Group’s approach to knowledge auditing. • KM2 is a “diagnostic methodology…for Knowledge Management analysis and planning”. • Emphasis placed on the need for performing this analysis quickly. SSP/AKT Meeting

14. KM2 Approach • Aims to identify, measure and quantify: • “The levels of knowledge usage throughout an organisation; • “An organisation’s current and potential KM proficiency; • “Strong and weak links throughout the knowledge enterprise chain. • “Activities, attitudes and infrastructure issues impacting an organisation’s KM aptitude.” SSP/AKT Meeting

15. KM2 Approach Uses web-based survey approach: • Step 0: customise survey for the organisation. • Step 1: deploy the survey and collect replies. • Step 2: analyse replies. • Step 3: (perhaps) conduct further interviews with particular ‘interesting’ respondents. SSP/AKT Meeting

16. KM2 Approach • Results presented in graphical format. • Accompanied by a KM expert’s advice and recommendations. • Results can be compared with those of other organisations. SSP/AKT Meeting

17. Knowledge Audit - Issues • What ‘knowledge items’ should be (can be) audited? • How can a value be placed on these items? (Do we need to value them?) • What is the goal of the audit? (Should an audit be ‘purpose-neutral’, or should it be goal-driven?) SSP/AKT Meeting

18. Knowledge Audit - Issues • How do we identify an organisation’s knowledge items? What (AI) tools can help in this? • Should the audit be a one-off or a continual process? • What time-frame for an audit is acceptable/ desirable? SSP/AKT Meeting

19. Knowledge Audit - Issues • Is it possible to audit the entire organisation? If not, how might a representative picture be gained? • In what form should the results be presented? • What are the research questions here? (What can we offer to the knowledge auditing field?) SSP/AKT Meeting

20. Links • KVA Method (BPA): www.businessprocessaudits.com • Structural Knowledge Auditing (AKRI): www.akri.org/Research/kaudit.htm • KM2 (Delphi Group): www.delphigroup.com/consult/KM2.pdf SSP/AKT Meeting