Knowledge Management: A Benchmarke Study of Contemporary Practices

1. © 2014 The MITRE Corporation..
Knowledge Management: A Benchmark Study of Contemporary Practices
September 16, 2014
Frank Linton, Ed.D.
Marcie Zaharee, Ph.D.
Marilyn Kupetz

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MITRE
Supports a broad and diverse set of sponsors within the U.S. government, as well as internationally
1958
2014
MITRE is a private, independent, not-for-profit organization, chartered to work in the public interest
Founded in 1958 to provide engineering and technical services to the U.S. Air Force
Currently manages Federally Funded Research and Development Centers for the:
Department of Defense
Federal Aviation Administration
Internal Revenue Service/ Department of Veterans Affairs
Department of Homeland Security
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
Department of Health and Human Services

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Outline
Background
–Why we performed this study
–Who we studied
–How we studied them: interview & survey
What we found
–The organizations we spoke with or surveyed
–Survey highlights
–Interview highlights
© 2013 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. For internal MITRE use

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Benchmarking
The continuous process of comparing and measuring your organization against others, anywhere in the world, to gain information on philosophies, practices, and measures that will help an organization take action to improve its performance

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This is what our customer wanted to know
What does a successful KM office look like?
Do larger offices use more best practices?
Does the location within the organization matter?
What is the effect of budget?

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How we went about answering his questions
Developed a survey by reviewing KM literature, compiling questions, piloting the instrument within MITRE
Arranged, conducted, and documented a series of 9 interviews
Recruited respondents from KM contacts, KM organizations, & websites
Analyzed results using SurveyPro & Excel

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Example Survey Questions

8. Thank you for taking the time to respond to this survey.
This survey is being conducted for the Knowledge Management Office (KMO) of one of MITRE’s customers.
Your thoughtful responses will help the KMO reorganize to become a more efficient and effective organization.
While your responses will be kept confidential, all respondents will receive a copy of the aggregated results.
KM Questionnaire

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Findings: The Organizations

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Responding Organizations
Respondents: 21
Type:
Commercial: 9
Government: 8
Other: 4
Budget for KM
Mostly for labor/staff: 1%
KM Governance:
Federated: 8
Local: 6
Centralized: 5
Other: 2
KM office reports to:
Chief Technology Officer: 4
Chief of Strategy: 4
Chief Information Officer: 2
Head of Organization Dev: 1
Various others: 7

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Findings: Highlights from the Survey

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KM Practices
KM Maturity Model
Do not use: 14
Use APQC model: 5
Use own model: 1
KM Training
On one’s own: 19
Conferences & workshops: 13
KM Community of Practice: 7
Internal training: 5

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KM Evaluation
Measure knowledge assets using
Nothing: 9
Scorecards: 8
Direct intellectual capital: 0
Market capitalization: 0
Measure KM organizational processes using
Nothing: 9
APQC KM assessment tool: 4
Other: 7

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KM Evaluation
Measure KM business outcomes using
Improvement in customer satisfaction: 12
Reduction in cycle time: 10
Cost savings: 9
Technological innovation: 6
Profit generated: 3
Other (business outcome, user satisfaction, customer report card, pre/ post measures) 8

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KM Activities that Organizations Reported

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To what extent does your organization support a knowledge sharing culture?
Our KM program is aligned with our organizations strategic goals 16
Our organizational culture supports the sharing
and use of knowledge 15
Our organization has a clear vision
and purpose for KM 13
Our KM program has strong top management
support 12

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13 . Which of the se knowledge management pra c tic e s doe s
your organiza tion use? Ple a se che c k a ll tha t apply.
Counts Percents Percents
0 100
Our organization has a library (either physical or virtual) 17 81%
Our organization has processes in place for knowledge transfer 16 76%
Our organization supports Communities of Practice 15 71%
Our organization formally supports mentoring and coaching activities 14 67%
Our organization has an onboarding plan for incoming personnel 14 67%
Our organization defines and measures competencies 12 57%
Our organization has a process to determine and transfer best practices 12 57%
Our organization hosts knowledge exchange meetings 12 57%
Our organization has standard quality processes in place 11 52%
Our organization practices after- action reviews 11 52%
Our organization formally recognizes and rewards collaboration,
knowledge sharing, etc.
10 48%
Our organization employs retirees for knowledge transfer 9 43%
Our organization has a knowledge retention program 9 43%
Our organization explicitly calls out knowledge management activities on
employee development plans
8 38%
Our organization hosts storytelling events 7 33%
Which of these KM practices does your
organization use?
Our organization has a library (either physical or virtual) 21
Our organization has processes in place for knowledge
transfer 16
Our organization supports communities of practice 15

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MITRE would describe KM success as increasingly:
Benchmarking oneself against a KM maturity model
Evaluating KM outcomes
Obtaining organizational support for KM
Providing KM training
Performing specific KM activities
Providing KM tools
Employing KM practices
We found no correlation between:
Size of KM office and use of best practices
Location of KM office in the organization and use of best practices
Budget of KM office and use of best practices

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Findings: Highlights from the Interviews

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Purpose
Understand how companies that specialize in intellectual products implement KM
Discover which best practices thrive in the KM domain
Capture metrics used to measure efficiency and value

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Interview Methodology
Planning
Identify what to benchmark
Identify comparable companies
Determine data collection method
Data Collection
Collect data
Data Analysis
Sort and compile data for comparison

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29
17
10
9
9
8
7
6
6
5
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
KM Benchmark
Top 10 Interview Themes
Other: 23

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Forrester Reference Model Building the IT Infrastructure and Operations Balanced Scorecard
© 2014 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
Dines, R, Hubbert, E. (2009) Building The IT Infrastructure And Operations Balanced Scorecard

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© 2013 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. For internal MITRE use
Value Perspective
Are dashboards used by senior management?
What types of KM programs/initiatives do organizations invest in?
Does a change of leadership have an impact on an organization’s KM strategy?
Is KM linked to other business units?
User Perspective
How do organizations monitor internal and external sharing and usage?
How are KM/IT services marketed within organizations?
What is the value of KM? How is it communicated? How is it perceived?
What types of KM metrics and measurements are captured and reported?
Operational Excellence Perspective How do organizations capture and share lessons learned? How do organizations roll out and adopt KM/IT programs? How do organizations prepare users for change? What types of KM/IT services are provided within organizations? How do organizations measure business performance on KM tools?
Future Orientation Perspective How long does it take new employees to become productive? What type of training is provided to staff? How does staff acquire KM-related skills?

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The Value Perspective
Senior staff’s vision of KM initiatives varies greatly
© 2013 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. For internal MITRE use
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ello_there/3021851454/sizes/m/in/photostream/

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Maintaining a positive perception of KM is challenging
Taxonomies may improve search but are manpower intensive
The User Orientation Perspective

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Operational Excellence Perspectives
Include a Communication SME as part of a roll-out team
Consider rebranding vs. rebuying
Customer loyalty requires best-in- class data
Adoption requires many key ingredients

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Establish formal communities of practice
Align KM within an organization
Make KM an integral part of the knowledge flow of an organization
Operational Excellence Perspectives

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Onboarding program
Collaboration and knowledge sharing
A hybrid of KM and domain specific skill sets
Ask new employees why
Future Orientation Perspective

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Culture and Metrics

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What draws people to share matches the company’s core values as well as the look and feel of other organizational processes

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Activity metrics
Operational metrics
Behavior metrics
Outcome metrics

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Strategic focus drives success
Align KM with organizational values
Knowledge sharing works better with incentives
Common processes assist productivity
Metrics are particular

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KM is a journey, not a destination

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© 2014 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.
Frank Linton, Ed.D.
linton@mitre.org
703-983-6728
Marcie Zaharee, Ph.D.
mzaharee@mitre.org
781-271-3345
Marilyn Kupetz
mkupetz@mitre.org
703-983-1733