Knowledge management is a highly adopted IT service management (ITSM) process, or ITIL practice, that organizations continue to struggle with. While the concept of corporate knowledge management dates back to the last millennium, the introduction of knowledge management to ITIL v3 best practices in 2007 and the potential benefits have made it a high priority for many IT organizations in the last decade and a half.

In 2023, an effective ITSM knowledge management capability is more important than ever. Because the reliance on shared knowledge has extended beyond the operational needs of IT staff – for example, IT service desk agents seeking solutions to incidents – to include employee self-help (as part of IT self-service capabilities) and machine-learning-based chatbot capabilities.

While the phrase “knowledge is power” has been a long-held management cliché, “knowledge is operational fuel” is now likely more accurate. Especially because both traditional self-help and newer virtual assistant capabilities will live or die based on the quality of the knowledge they have access to. However, the modern knowledge management need is not only to power technology-based ITSM use cases but also to maintain IT and business operations in a world of remote working and higher staff departure levels.

So, how good are your organization’s ITSM knowledge management capabilities? If they need improvement, then this knowledge management blog is for you.

How good are your organization’s ITSM knowledge management capabilities? If they need improvement, then this @SysAid blog is for you. #ITSM #ServiceDesk Click To Tweet

The current state of knowledge management

The Axelos 2022 ITSM Benchmarking Report found that knowledge management is the fifth most-adopted ITIL practice at 79% of organizations. However, the self-reported level of knowledge management success was one of the lowest, across the commonly adopted ITIL practices, at just 20%, i.e. 80% of the IT organizations that have adopted knowledge management stated that it needed improving.

It’s a scary statistic, although it’s helpful to see that your organization is not alone in struggling with knowledge management. But we should remember that the knowledge management capabilities might still be working within many of these organizations, just not as well as the organization would like.

There are many potential reasons for this. Some are operational – for example, that:

• Knowledge, while available, is difficult to find quickly
• Knowledge quality is inconsistent or outdated and is, therefore, not trusted
• Knowledge maintenance requires too much effort and investment
• The IT organization’s knowledge-sharing technology is unfit for purpose, including integrations with other systems
• There’s a lack of standardization, with different IT teams capturing and organizing knowledge inconsistently.

However, many of the toughest knowledge management challenges relate to people, with knowledge management research identifying that:

• “People always know more than they can say, and they will always say more than they can write down”
• “People only know what they know when they need to know it”
• “Knowledge can only be volunteered, it cannot be conscripted.”

Did you know that 80% of the IT organizations that have adopted knowledge management state that it needs improving? Here @SysAid shares 10 good practices for knowledge management success. #ITSM #ServiceDesk Click To Tweet

The benefits

Despite these operational and people-related issues, knowledge management is still viewed as an essential part of modern ITSM capabilities (and hence the high adoption levels found in the Axelos survey and report) – for example, in:

• Enhancing ITSM practitioner capabilities
• Empowering end-users to self-help
• Facilitating modern ITSM capabilities that leverage machine learning
• Speeding up incident remediation
• Improving service quality and consistency
• Informing problem-resolution and decision-making
• Reducing duplication of effort and minimizing training investments
• Helping to ensure compliance.

So, how can your organization improve the probability of its knowledge management success?

How can your organization improve the probability of its knowledge management success? Check out these tips from @SysAid. #ITSM #ServiceDesk Click To Tweet

10 good practices for knowledge management introduction or improvement

1. Ensure that the common barriers to knowledge management adoption and success – both operational and people-related – are known, with plans to avoid or address them.
2. Get everyone “on the same page” regarding their knowledge management expectations – from the common goals to agreed success metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).
3. Appreciate that, like configuration management data, managed knowledge has little value until it’s used to create business value.
4. Ensure corporate knowledge management ambitions are supported by fit-for-purpose knowledge management technology and practices across the knowledge-sharing lifecycle. This need includes using newer technologies such as machine learning and natural language understanding (NLU).
5. Use the knowledge management technology to make knowledge sharing and use easy. If it’s not easy (as well as helpful), people simply won’t use it.
6. Recognize that knowledge management is about people, despite the need for enabling technology.
7. Understand that successful knowledge management requires people change, with an investment in organizational change management (OCM) needed to address any resistance to change and to help change mindsets and knowledge-sharing behaviors.
8. Embed knowledge management in operational practices. Failing to do this will make knowledge management optional, with knowledge captured or used only when time permits.
9. Invest time ensuring that knowledge articles are designed for easy consumption rather than showing how much a subject matter expert (SME) knows. For example, in some instances, brief “answers” will be better than overly-long knowledge articles where the knowledge seeker needs to waste time finding the small piece of knowledge they actually need.
10. As with all ITSM capabilities, don’t neglect continual improvement. Regularly review and evaluate your knowledge management capabilities to identify issues and key areas for improvement.

Top tip for knowledge management success: recognize that it requires people change, with an investment in organizational change management. More on this, plus additional tips in this @SysAid blog. #ITSM #ServiceDesk Click To Tweet

Your organization’s ITSM operations and outcomes likely need better knowledge management capabilities. Find out more about SysAid’s knowledge capabilities.