People-focused knowledge management

Purpose: Identify and assess knowledge-related issues in target sit-
uations to determine whether better KM can improve the situation.
Typical Approaches: Identify pressing and priority operational and
business symptoms and issues that then are pursued with in-depth
analysis and aided by the use of Critical Function Analysis.
Critical Knowledge Function Analysis (CKFA)
Critical knowledge functions (CKF) analysis is a tool that many
practitioners use to find knowledge-related areas that need attention.
Examples of Knowledge Management Analysis Approaches
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A central issue in knowledge-related diagnostics and other knowl-
edge analysis work is the capability to identify and characterize oper-
ational, professional, or managerial functions that in some way are
critical — by being functional bottlenecks or vulnerable, or by being
unrealized opportunities, etc. Examples of simplified CKF character-
istics are presented in Table A-2 for four types of situations. CKFs
are characterized by five descriptions:
1. The type of knowledge (or expertise or skill) involved in per-
forming a function or task.
2. Business use of that knowledge.
3. Constraint that prevents the knowledge to be utilized fully, the
vulnerability of the situation, or the unrealized opportunity that
is not taken advantage of.
4. Opportunities and alternatives for managing (i.e., improving or
correcting) the CKF.
5. Expected (incremental) value of improving the situation —
release knowledge constraint, take advantage of (exploit) the
opportunity to use knowledge differently.
Purpose: Find, characterize, and assess the potential value of
knowledge-related improvements of critical knowledge functions.