Knowledge Management
Method to capture, organize and share organisational knowledge using processes, roles and tools.
Classification
- ComplexityMedium
- Impact areaOrganizational
- Decision typeOrganizational
- Organizational maturityIntermediate
Technical context
Principles & goals
Use cases & scenarios
Compromises
- Content swamp: inconsistent and low-quality content
- Incorrect access rights block knowledge sharing
- Excessive centralisation may hinder innovation
- Keep it useful: focus on usable, bite-sized content
- Bind ownership directly to teams
- Establish regular reviews and metrics
I/O & resources
- Existing documents, tutorials and artefacts
- Subject experts and stakeholder access
- Technical platform for repository and search
- Searchable knowledge base
- Runbooks, how-tos and decision documents
- Assigned content owners and review processes
Description
Knowledge Management is a method to capture, organize and reuse organisational knowledge through processes, roles and tools. It establishes responsibilities, taxonomies and workflows to make expertise accessible, reduce duplication and speed decision-making. Applied across teams, it balances governance, incentives and scalable platforms for continuous learning.
✔Benefits
- Reduced onboarding time for new hires
- Improved decision basis through documented knowledge
- Less redundant work and repetition
✖Limitations
- Initial effort to build structure and taxonomy
- Maintenance effort: outdated content without ownership
- Cultural barriers to sharing tacit knowledge
Trade-offs
Metrics
- Time-to-productivity (onboarding)
Average time until new hires work autonomously.
- Content reuse rate
Share of issues/tasks resolved without repeated research.
- Documentation freshness
Share of content reviewed within a defined period.
Examples & implementations
Confluence as knowledge base
Rollout of a structured Confluence instance for central storage of processes and FAQs.
KCS approach in IT support
Integration of KCS principles so solutions are documented during handling and reused.
Wiki.js for developer docs
Use of an open-source platform (Wiki.js) for decentralized yet structured developer documentation.
Implementation steps
Initial inventory and stakeholder workshop
Define roles, workflows and taxonomy
Select and configure platform
Pilot with a team and iterative rollout
Establish review cycles and metrics
⚠️ Technical debt & bottlenecks
Technical debt
- Legacy documents without structure tie up maintenance capacity
- Monolithic platform complicates integration
- Lack of automation in review workflows
Known bottlenecks
Misuse examples
- Complete migration of old files without cleansing
- Introducing a tool without roles or processes
- Using as a pure archive without search optimisation
Typical traps
- Assuming technology alone generates knowledge
- Not measuring reuse; success remains invisible
- Unclear ownership leads to outdated content
Required skills
Architectural drivers
Constraints
- • Budget for tools and operations
- • Privacy and compliance requirements
- • Available capacity for maintenance and reviews