[Sigkm-l] KM Audits

[Mark A Montgomery]

Hi Jack,

I agree with you to a point. If you are responding to my comment about
automating the audit, I carefully said:

"as much of the process that we find optimum"

I don't want to go into great detail in public, but the reasons for
deciding which specific portions of the audit to automate (or not) are
for audit quality purposes, or in other words are the areas where an
automated process provides more truth, better documentation, and/or
security.  

Perhaps more important to this topic; it is not possible for the thought
leader with the deepest domain knowledge to be physically in two places
at one time (or any other mortal). However, by automating part of the
process, it is possible to leverage the best minds that would otherwise
not even be available, and provide an incentivized format for thought
leaders to share a lifetime of investment in a useful and appropriate
manner.

An audit is difficult to automate, and at this point I for one am not
certain the entire process could be automated, or even if that attempt
should be made at this early stage of evolution. However, I am certain
that audit processes that don't pro-actively deal with the inherent
conflicts, like between the consultant and client, and the consultant and
his/her company, cannot be as valuable as those that do, all else being
equal.

No question that one-on-one interviews conducted by an experienced
professional is often the best path, also true that for some issues it is
not necessary or desirable for an outside consultant to have access to
certain pieces of information, so we've found a combination of the two to
be most effective at this stage.

All humans, including consultants & knowledge system architects, can only
access and understand a small portion of our memory, we rarely share that
portion in an efficient manner, and more enduring/problematic; few of us
have meaningful personal incentives to even make the attempt. These
issues are far more important than automating part of an audit, but are
related to doing so. 

That is to say that automating the audit process is not (for me) in the
top ten priorities in the design of a comprehensive knowledge system, but
the design of the audit process is.

.02

Mark Montgomery
Founder
KYield


On Fri, 12 Apr 2002 12:26:17 -0400 Jack Bryar <Jack.Bryar at newsedge.com>
writes:
> We have a fairly detailed and efficient methodology for generating 
> such audits. 
> 
> I must say, however that the information gathering process is hard 
> to automate. People rarely appreciate what they know & don't know. 
> It really requires 1:1 questioning, and use of followup questions. 
> 
> In addition, there are certain "corporate politics" issues which 
> need to be acknowledged. People are not pre-disposed to revealing 
> their information gathering and communication chains. The more 
> impersonal the process of information gathering, the less that will 
> be revealed. Better to make sure you get the information rather than 
> worrying about lowering the cost of gathering it. By far the biggest 
> cost is not getting complete, accurate information.
> 
> Jack Bryar
> Practice Leader, & Knowledge Officer
> Knowledge Consulting Services
> NewsEdge, a Thomson Company  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark A Montgomery [mailto:montgomery_mark at juno.com]
> Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 12:41 PM
> To: kris.burk at mail.state.ky.us
> Cc: sigkm-l at asis.org
> Subject: Re: [Sigkm-l] KM Audits
> 
> 
> There have been many questions on knowledge audits on-line with few
> answers. 
> 
> One of the reasons (sadly) is that we have few mechanisms that 
> reward
> sharing our most valuable knowledge, and an audit is one of those 
> issues
> that represents a substantial portion of the entire body of 
> knowledge for
> the consultant (s), whether an individual, team, or organization. In
> addition, audits are very confidential, every one I've ever been 
> involved
> with requires an nondisclosure agreement for all parties engaged due 
> to
> the need to discover and analyze the most sensitive information 
> within
> the subject.
> 
> We've been working for some time on automating as much of the 
> process
> that we find optimum, which is of course a substantial investment 
> that
> must be protected, but is only one piece (albeit an essential 
> building
> block) of a comprehensive knowledge system.  However, I can share 
> some
> personal and general thoughts that may be of some assistance.
> 
> Generally speaking about audits ( off the top- sorry I don't have 
> time to
> really dig into it ) -
> 
> Like any consulting type audit of an organization's processes, 
> structure,
> situation,  tools, etc., the audit is an investigative analysis that
> attempts to find specific answers to questions (truths) regarding 
> the
> topic at hand, eventually providing a critical mass of
> information/answers that provide the audit team with a broad 
> accurate
> picture of the situation. 
> 
> The investigative process should ultimately lead the audit team to
> specific conclusions and recommendations for the client. 
> 
> Each specific audit topic has specific challenges. From a visual
> perspective, each of the specific audits (IT, Marketing, Accounting)
> should look like smaller circles overlapping each other with a full 
> blown
> organizational audit overlapping all areas. Ideally, the knowledge 
> audit
> team leader should have experience with organizational audits.
> 
> Knowledge audits are very challenging because it is a multi- 
> disciplinary
> field of study that includes several critical areas, each of which
> requires substantial knowledge and experience to perform, including 
> at a
> minimum: IT organization and systems,  organizational 
> dynamics/culture,
> human resources, library & IS, training/education/learning,
> communications, intellectual property/law, business & competitive
> intelligence. I am also interested in finances, executive office 
> culture
> and views, marketing and other areas depending on how the org is
> structured.
> 
> So you can see that from my perspective, knowledge audits should 
> start
> with the existing organizational chart/structure so that the audit 
> can be
> tailored to the organization. In large organizations, no question in 
> my
> mind that it requires a carefully selected audit team, with a very
> exceptional team leader (breadth and depth), and a client team that 
> is
> assigned to the task, preferably led by the CEO. 
> 
> Audits are a fantastic learning experience, but this is not an area 
> where
> experience, education, and/or certification on a resume at this 
> point of
> the field's maturity will necessarily reveal a strong audit team. 
> 
> Best of luck with your education and your audit!
> 
> Mark Montgomery
> Founder
> KYield
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 12 Apr 2002 08:16:58 -0400 kris.burk at mail.state.ky.us 
> writes:
> > I am a Graduate Student in a Library and Information Science 
> Program
> > studying Knowledge Management.  Starting in May, as an independent 
> 
> > study, I
> > will be conducting an evaluation of an IT corporation's knowledge 
> > resources
> > (knowledge audit).  Any advice, processes, or resources that 
> anyone 
> > would be
> > willing to share with me or point me to while I begin planning for 
> 
> > the
> > initiative?
> > 
> > Kristiana Burk
> > kris.burk at mail.state.ky.us
> > 
> > 
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> > Sigkm-l at asis.org
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> 
> 
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