Knowledge Management in Scrum
As per Scrum Guide, Scrum is a framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products. Scrum is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. Scrum is now widely used for products, services, and the management of the organization.
Scrum is founded on empirical process control theory, or empiricism. Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is known.
Scrum proved especially effective in iterative and incremental knowledge transfer. The Roles, Events and Artifacts in Scrum inherently help for iterative and incremental knowledge transfer - knowledge about the product, people, processes, problems and progress.
In this article, I am going to describe additional details on how Knowledge Management can be leveraged as a process to strengthen knowledge transfer.
Agenda:
- Knowledge Management Process
- Knowledge Management Roles
- Benefits of Knowledge Management System
What is Knowledge Management?
Knowledge Management is a key ITSM process area for creating, publishing, reviewing, and searching knowledge base articles.
It provides Service Management Team with a Knowledge Base to find solutions and also provide users self-service search options to help them to resolve issues/ incidents/ requests on their own.
The key activities of Knowledge Management System are:
- Knowledge Identification
- Knowledge Acquisition
- Knowledge Application
- Knowledge Sharing
- Knowledge Development
- Knowledge Creation
- Knowledge Preservation
- Knowledge Measurement
The two major key activities of Knowledge Management System are creation and modification. Most of the ITSM tools provide the built-in Knowledge Base Management System for authoring.
Knowledge Management Process Roles for Create, Edit and Publish
Knowledge Management Submitter / User
User creates a Knowledge Base article based on various sources like user pain points, issues, service incidents, requests, problems, changes
Knowledge Management Functional SME
User submits to the SME as defined in the organization Knowledge Management process, who in turn reviews the Knowledge Base article from Domain/Functional, Process and Technical perspective and moves to the next level for final review and publication.
Knowledge Management Reviewer and Publisher
Post SME review, Knowledge Management reviewer will approve / reject. On approval the Knowledge Base article gets published. On rejection the Knowledge Base article moves to the submitter / user who created.
Knowledge Management Maintenance
The Knowledge Base articles approved will be maintained in the Knowledge Repository Database for reference and based on organization maintenance policy Knowledge Base articles will be removed or deleted from the Database.
Scrum Roles in Knowledge Management System
Scrum Master: A Scrum Master can help the Developers to develop the Knowledge Base over a period of time. They can set up the relevant processes and practices that help the Developers improve their knowledge on technology, domain and engineering practices.
A Scrum Master can play the role of a Knowledge Management Submitter / User, Knowledge Management Functional SME, Knowledge Management Reviewer and Publisher in Knowledge Management. Additionally, the Scrum Master can take up the responsibility of Knowledge Management Maintenance too.
Product Owner: A Product Owner can create the Knowledge Base about the product domain, market dynamics, user preferences etc. using the Knowledge Management System.
A Product Owner can play the role of a Knowledge Management Submitter / User, Knowledge Management Functional SME, Knowledge Management Reviewer and Publisher in Knowledge Management.
Developers: The Developers invests appropriate amount of time in creating and sharing knowledge to other members, so that eventually the Developers can become cross-functional.
The various members of a Developers can play the role of a Knowledge Management Submitter / User, Knowledge Management Functional SME, Knowledge Management Reviewer and Publisher in Knowledge Management.
Benefits of Knowledge Management System
Key benefits of having Knowledge Management System in place are:
- Better decision making
- Faster response to key business issues
- Improved employee skill
- Improved productivity
- Increased profits
- Cross Functional Developers
References:
- Scrum Guide from www.ScrumGuides.org
- My experience of ITSM projects.
Useful Links:
Few Techniques For Product Discovery, Advanced Certified Product Owner Course Worcester, Scrum Product Owner Online Course Indianapolis, Advanced-CSM Training San Antonio, CSPO Certification Course Nashville, A-CSPO Online Course Fort Worth, CSM Training Memphis, Certified Scrum Master Virtual Certification Training Liverpool, Scrum Master Course Mumbai, Product Owner Training Japan
