Was ist "Lean Knowledge Management" ?

Alles muss schlanker werden. Produktionsprozesse, Softwareentwicklung, wir alle.
"Lean" ist in aller Munde, seit einiger Zeit. Zurecht.
Bei einer Diskussion in der kürzeren Vergangenheit kam die Frage zwischen dem Zusammenhang von "kontinuierlichem Wissenstransfer" und "Lean Management" zur Sprache.
Hier meine Antwort darauf: 
Kontinuierlicher Wissenstransfer (siehe auch: www.wisdomclouds.com/artikel) bedient sich ganz gezielt bei Agilen Entwicklungsmethoden. Diese wiederum bauen auf den Grundprinzipien des Lean-Managements auf. Hier schliesst sich schonmal ein Kreis.

Konkret muss folgende Anforderung an ein "Lean Knowledge Management" erfüllt werden:

Lean Knowledge-Management muss einen einen kontinuierlichen Wissensflusses unterstützen.

"Täglicher Wissenstransfer" statt "sporadische Wissensablage" ist das Motto. Diese Anforderung ergibt sich aus dem Lean-Prinzip "Flow of material and information should be continuous".

Wie kann das umgesetzt werden ?
Mit folgenden Regeln:

1) Schnelle Erfassung.  Als Ziel sollte eine Erfassung in einer oder weniger möglich sein. Barrieren wie aufwändige Anmeldungen oder Erfassungsmasken müssen abgeschafft werden.
2) Kurze und "kleine" Wissensobjekte erfassen. Aus unserer Erfahrung sind Wissensobjekte (z.B. Lessons-Learned, Links, Fakten, Hinweise auf abgelegte Dokumente) im Durchschnitt 221 Zeichen gross. Zum Vergleich: Einträge in der Wikipedia sind durchschnittlich ca. 3000 Zeichen groß und damit ca. 12 mal so umfangreich mit entsprechenden Auswirkungen auf Erfassungsdauer, Qualitätssicherung, usw.
3) Die Verteilung muss in einem vorher definierten und bekannten Netz von Experten stattfinden. Auf diese Art muss der Verfasser nicht jedesmal nachdenken an wen man etwas versendet, sondern die bereits existierenden sozialen Expertennetze werden ständig mit neuem Wissen bedient.
4) "Aus dem Weg gehen": das Tool darf nicht im Mittelpunkt stehen, sondern muss sich in die 
Arbeitswelt des Users einfügen (Bsp.: Hinweise auf neue Wissensobjekte per Mail-Notification oder per RSS-Feed direkt in Eclipse)
5) Qualitätssicherung: Ein "Knowledge-Master" (analog einem "Scrum-Master") bzw. seine Helfer
("Knowledge-Editoren") wachen über die Qualität der Einträge und veranlassen eine Korrektur
falls notwendig. Einige Wenige müssen den Hut aufhaben und andere anleiten (im Gegensatz
zum Wiki-Prinzip). Nur so kann die Qualität von Anfang an gewährleistet werden.
In dieser wisdomcloud sind Bücherempfehlungen und Links zum Thema "Lean Development" zusammengestellt.
Viel Spass beim Stöbern,
Stefan Wendel

 

Vortrag "Kontinuierlicher Wissenstransfer" bei der Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement / Gesellschaft für Informatik in Kiel

Spannende Veranstaltung: kommende Woche werde ich die wunderschöne Hafenstadt Kiel besuchen und auf Einladung der Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement und der Gesellschaft für Informatik / Regionalgruppe Kiel einen Vortrag über das Thema "Kontinuierlicher Wissenstransfer" halten.

 

Spannend auch deshalb, da nicht nur Vetreter aus dem Projektmanagement-"Alltag" dabei sein werden, sondern auch namhafte Vertreter aus dem universitären Bereich mit Schwerpunkten im "Knowledge-Management".

Lessons-Learned, Hintergrundinfos und Updates zu diesem Vortrag werde ich in einer wisdomcloud zusammenfassen. Hier schonmal der Link zu dieser wisdomcloud:

http://www.wisdomclouds.com/Brainsharing/40/home

Hier der Link zu den Details der Veranstaltung:

Termin: 26.05.2011

Ort: Restaurant & Café Seeburg, Düsternbrooker Weg 2, 24105 Kiel

Uhrzeit: 18:00 - 20:00

http://bit.ly/kR172E

Artikel "Brainsharing - Kontinuierlicher Wissenstransfer für IT-Projektteams", iX-Magazin, Ausgabe Mai 2011

Nicht ganz ohne Stolz hier die Vorankündigung auf die morgen erscheinenden aktuelle Ausgabe der iX (Ausgabe Mai 2011).

Unter dem Titel "Brainsharing" wird der Prozess des kontinuierlichen Wissenstransfers dargestellt. Vielen Dank an die Redakteure und Mitarbeiter des Heise-Verlages für die Erstellung der gelungenden Grafiken und letztendlich für die Idee des "Brainsharing"-Titels.

Eine Online-Version kann unter

http://www.wisdomclouds.com/artikel

eingesehen werden. Wir bitten um Verständnis, dass dieser Artikel aus Copyright-Gründen nicht heruntergeladen, sondern lediglich ausgedruckt werden kann.

Kritik, Fragen, Anregungen, Meinungen zu diesem Thema ? Wir stehen gerne für eine Diskussion zur Verfügung:

stefan [a t] wisdomclouds.com

Viel Spass beim Lesen!

Stefan Wendel.

 

Reflecting a milestone year in Internet-history: 12 Tech-Lessons learned in 12 months

A happy new year, everybody!

Just before starting the final countdown and move over to a hopefully exciting new year, let me briefly reflect on what was, in my opinion, a major milestone in the age of the internet. Here are my 12 lessons I drew from 2010:

Lesson 2010/01: The web is finally how it should have been from the beginning.
The Web is changing. Changing from the document-centric model (where web-pages are linked) to a people-centric model (where people are linked).  Tim Berners-Lee invented the web as a knowledge-management-system allowing to share and link documents within the CERN back in the early 1990‘s.

In 2010 documents are still relevant, but people and the links/relations between them become more and more central. It‘s called the social graph. Maybe this is how we always wanted to use the web. This is how we already used the web during all those years via forums, chats or emails.

And by the way: this is how Berners-Lee imagined it back in 1989. In his paper "Information Retrieval: A proposal" which is widely recognized as the "requirement-specification" of what later became the World-Wide-Web, Berners-Lee describes a system where "nodes" are linked. And guess what ? Nodes can be quite a lot of things, such as documents (a.k.a. web-pages), people (!), projects or "software-modules" and many more. So, to be correct: 2010 is the year where we enter Phase 2 of Berner-Lee's original concept: After many years of linking documents ("Phase 1"), now the net starts linking people. A profound and fundamental change which, in my eyes, legitimates an otherwise blurry term such as "Web 2.0".

Lesson 2010/02: All but 3 people are on Facebook.
Facebook hits 600 million users. That's 8% of the earth‘s population and 25% of all internet users. I only know 3 people who are not on Facebook.

Lesson 2010-3: Thank god, the net is still growing.
Internet Usage has grown by 444% compared to 2000. The big wheel of fortune for all of us is still turning, fueling innovations, developers, entrepreneurs, job-agencies, designers, pizza-bakeries and last but not least the internet itself.

Firing its own growth, I got the feeling that the current net is a perfectly running perpetuum mobile. With every new page created and every new connection between people installed, new "content" is created. New content attracts more and new people. More and new people create pages and connect to each other ... pushing the perpetuum mobile ... pushing the perpetuum mobile ... How long is it going to last ... ?

Lesson 2010-4: Sunset on bare-metal == Sunrise with shiny new clouds
In April, Oracle aquires Sun. For me, Sun‘s decline is one of the big signs of the successful and unstoppable rise of Cloud-based Services. The first wave of internet (ca. 2000) was fueled by free available open-source software (Tomcat, Mysql, etc.). Infrastructure and services weren‘t free. You had to build your own services and set up exensive hardware you bought from Sun et al. Now, there are infrastructure and application services available for almost no price and no setup costs.

Rent services, don't buy bare metal. Pay on demand instead of massively upfront. Integrate existing services within hours in your applications, don't build by yourself. Those are the new mottos and they make so much sense.

That's the way to build scalable software the 2010-way.

Lesson 2010-5: eBooks sell like crazy.
In July, Amazon lets the world know that it sells more eBooks than printed books. For first time an author (Stieg Larsson) sells more than 1 million eBooks.

Lesson 2010-6: Gestures are the most-easy-to-use usability pattern.
The iPad is released in April. Computing now becomes easy enough even for 4-year-olds. The usability-pattern of computers slowly changes from mouse to gestures.

Lesson 2010-7: There's a service for everything.
In 2010, Cloud-based Software-as-a-Service offerings are available for everything in life and business. Those services are free or available at an very reasonable price. Email, spreadsheets, word-processing, server-monitoring, music streaming, information databases, infrastructure-services such as email or payment.

In July, 1000memories.com, an investor-backed online-memorial-service went live and probably filled the last available niche. While back in 2000, every possible piece of information could be found on the net, in 2010 every possible service can be rented or used for free over the net.

Lesson 2010-8: TV-Future will be bright.
HD television gets mainstream, 3D TV hits the market around the time of the World Championship and is mainstream in cinema since Avatar beginning of the year. It is obvious that 3D-gaming will be big in the next years.

Lesson 2010-9: Social-Media even sells good smells.
Social-Media, often mixed with Web 2.0, has gone mainstream and has a significant relevance for marketing. Even established brands benefit massivly from Social Media, as a hillarious Marketing-campaign for OldSpice Body Wash proves.

Lesson 2010-10: Video killed the Blockbuster-star
In September, Blockbuster files bancruptcy. That is the most obvious sign that movie streaming via the Internet has gone mainstream with providers such as Netflix, iTunes and T-Home. While 2000 was the year where digital music killed the CD, 2010 is the year where online-streaming whipes out "classic" video-distribution channels, meaning the good old video-stores around the corner.

Lesson 2010-11: "The Art of War" has to be rewritten
The internet now officially fights side-by-side of soldiers. In September, the first (publicly known) cyberattack on a nuclear reactor is conducted using an arcane virus called "Stuxnet".

Lesson 2010-12: There's never gonna be "the one" killer-application
Remember the key question back in 2000 ? What is going to be the one killer-application for high-speed mobile data access ... ? In 2010 more than 300.000 killer-applications for smartphones are found and new species are dragged to light with each new day. Definitly, mobile apps are here to stay. Another thread to the way we know the internet as it is today ? 2011 and beyond will tell.

All the best wishes for you and your family and to a great, successful and healthy 2011.

stefan.wendel@wisdomclouds.com

Great news: Wisdomclouds will be speaking at the 1. European Software Solutions Conference (SOSOCON) in Hannover, Germany

Hey everybody,

we are very glad and happy to announce that we will present the concept of "Continuous Knowledge Exchange" at the 1. European Software Solutions Conference (Sosocon) in Hannover, Germany. Date: 30.11. - 01.12.

Continuous Knowledge Exchange is filed under Communication / Future Technologies (please see link below).

http://www.sosocon.de/sosocon/programm/1konferenztag-3011/kommunikation/future-technologies/detail/artikel/continuous-knowledge-exchange.html

Can't think of any better classification.

Please check out the rest of the program, some real high-profile speakers and interesting subjects will be waiting.

Really looking forward to discuss our approach with a great audience.

Cheers,

Stefan.

Advice #1: Respect that knowledge to be shared is small, not big.

When working together with clients on effective knowlege-sharing in IT-projects one lesson got obvious in the very beginning:

Knowledge-units are small. Not big.

Re-checking this assumption in wisdomclouds.com turned out to be affirmative: The average size of a knowledge-unit submitted in wisdomclouds.com is 221 characters. 

That's right: 221 characters. That's not even 2 text-messages from a mobile.

And here lies one of the downsides of Wikis and Sharepoints: they are not tailored to handle this. They are tailored to create and handle documents or web-pages.

And because those knowledge-units are small, they are very easy and very fast to be submitted. Which is great for your team, because capturing and submission of knowledge doesn't take long.

Now image: your team consists of 10 people. Let's assume each of the team-members submits just 1 lesson per day.

That's 10 lessons a day. 50 per week. 200 per month. 600 per quarter. 2400 per year.

How and where would you store those knowledge-units in a Wiki or Sharepoint ? One site per entry ? Several entries on one page ?

Wiki's and Sharepoint's (and countless other document-management-systems) are made for storing documents. Documents are aggregations of smaller knowledge-pakets. Like "Point-of-View"- or "Process-description"-documents, which are, in fact, a summary of many small and distinct knowledge-units.

Summary:

 Knowledge-units are small. And in any team, in daily-business, small knowledge-units are relevant for a team to be shared. Documents come later.

Advice: What to do ? 

1) Accept this fact. Inform and teach your team that knowledge-sharing is not about writing huge, lengthy and shiny Power-Point-presentations. It's about writing down as soon as possible what people learned, no matter how incomplete or informal the first version might be. Your team-members will get used to it.

2) Offer your team a  way to store those knowlege-pakets efficiently. Email or shared Excel will do in the beginning.

3) Repeat and train the process of submission of small units: in the beginning team-members are shy to submit, because of the "informal" character of those small-units. Lead by example and find one or two supporters in your team. Over time, team-members will get used in submitting small units.

For some examples of what we mean by small knowledge-units please see demo here (just login with demo/demo).

 

 

 

Why Knowledge-Management should be like Facebook

Tackled with the problem of submitting, storing and sharing of lessons-learned in IT-projects over and over again in the last years one problem became apparent to me:
Knowledge management systems are just a synonym for document management systems. While those document management systems are indeed sometimes needed one huge issue remains unsolved: there is no support for networks of experts that are sharing their informations or knowledge.
There is no such thing as a "Facebook of Knowledge-Management".

That is a huge misfit to reality, because when you look closely into any organization you‘ll find those networks everywhere: they exist in small, midsize, large and sometimes even huge quantities. One can only guess that in any huge software-develeping-company with several thousands or even hundreds of thousands of employees those knowledge-sharing-networks also exists in their thousands. But: they are unsupported by any tool. Left alone in their misery if to use either Word or Excel to write down stuff they learned and where to put it or send it to.

Those existing networks are personal knowledge-networks. People exchanging relevant wisdom and information because they know each other. They‘ve met in person, most likely working on projects together. They respect themselves, the know what the other knows and to what extent he or she can be trusted.
So, how do they share information if they need to ? They write an email. They pick up the phone and call somebody they know. Maybe, if they are in the same office or location they meet over lunch. Or they just go over to the next desk. 
The problem with that: how many people are left outside ? How many people exist in such a large company that also have something to say ? How big is the existing, but deeply hidden knowledge about a topic such as „J2EE-software development“ or „implementing with SAP-HR“ in a software-development company ? Is it really the 5-10 people you personally know ... ? Where are the others ... ?
And the next, immediate following question: even if those experts would meet, how do they not only exchange their knowledge efficiently, but also store the information, so that it‘s easily findable ?

In my opinion,  knowlege-management is mainly about communication. It‘s sharing of information between relevant experts. Storing documents in a Wiki or Sharepoint makes sense, but it is not the essence of knowledge-management. 
Marc Benioff, founder and CEO of salesforce.com raised the point that all business-software should be like Facebook (see: "The Facebook Imperative" http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/24/the-facebook-imperative/ ). I agree and I think it's valid for knowledge-management as well.
Cheers,
Stefan.
stefan.wendel (a t ) wisdomclouds . com

http://www.wisdomclouds.com/welcome

Definition of a lesson-learned

When talking to people about the basic concept of wisdomclouds everybody gets the idea of "submitting" his or her personal lessons-learned immediately.
But: when it comes to point of writing down a lesson-learned, people start scratching their heads, asking "what exactly is a lesson-learned" and, subsequently, "how shall we write it down?"

Let's give them a hand. Definition first:

"A Lesson-Learned is knowledge gained through experience, which if shared, would benefit the work of others." (from: U.S. Army's Center for Army Lessons Learned, yes something like this does indeed exist).

In other (my) words: some experience you made, either good or bad which "enhanced" your knowledge. Made you wiser than before. And: from which others can benefit from. Those are things you have to reflect on, to think about, something that matures over time in your head.

Another kind of lessons-learned are the fact-based ones: the small things you read in the paper, watch on TV, listen to on the news, hear from somebody telling you. Something like: "hey, did you know, there are far more than 100 million people living in Nigeria" (if was so surprised when a collegue of my former company who actually is from Nigeria told me this). If that's relevant to you and you want to remember it: submit it to wisdomclouds. If not, let your brain wipe it out.

You can share both types of lessons. While the first one are more like an "advice" to others, the fact-based ones are real know-how that other might benefit from immediately.

Basically I am working with those two types of lessons-learned and trying to remember both of them.

Cheers,
Stefan.

The one thing missing for an "Age of Facebook"

Techcrunch announcing the "Age of Facebook", I think one thing's still missing for that

Back in early summer 2010 Techcrunch announced  "The Age of Facebook", with the conclusion that "all the momentum is behind Facebook and how they are changing the Web and our culture".

I fully agree to the arguments that lead to this conclusion. But still, I think there is one thing missing for a new age of Facebook. The arguments were:

1) the massive user base of 400 million registered users and

2 ) its new "core feature", the so-called "Open Graph".

Those two combined indeed will change the game. Let's take a quick look at the new feature, the "Open Graph". The Open-Graph is not really a new concept. It was always there, being the "skeleton" that backs Facebook's community from day one. It just didn't have a name yet. And, more importantly, it just wasn't open yet.

The new and revolutionary idea that Mark Zuckerberg released during Facebook's developer conference F8 is simple, but powerful: Like fishermen, they threw out the graph like a net over the web. Like this everyone gets interconnected, even on pages independant and outside of Facebook. The graph is leaving its home base and starts spreading all over the net. It's no longer Facebook's skeleton but it could become the Web's backbone.

"Social will be default", as Zuckerberg called it and he will be right. The start of a revolution. Really no doubt about this. But is that really enough for a New Age ? No. Not yet.

Because: I am pretty sure one step is still missing. LinkedIn, Plaxo, Xing and all of the "other networks" will remain relatively relaxed. Why ? Because we are just talking of ONE graph which is opening. The Facebook graph. In my case, the graph of my friends. Not the graph of my colleagues. Not the graph of my professional contacts. Not the graph of my clients. Just the Facebook graph. Nothing more and nothing less.

Of course, still, it's massive, 400 million IS a lot. It's enough for the start of a revolution. But it is not enough for a new age?

What has to be done for Facebook to fully reach the "Age of Facebook"? It has to be like life!

Facebook has to offer more than one graph. It must start offering multiple graphs. As many graphs any user wants and needs to have. Like the ones I mentioned above. I want one platform and one platform only where I can be, where my identity checks in and resides. My home.

But: from time to time I want to leave the house and spent time in the graphs of my current, after-leaving-the-house life context. The context of my work, my spare-time, my kids. I want multiple graphs, not just one. And I want them to be seperated from each other.

Why ? Because that's how life is set up. And if social should be the default, it must be like life. Like life with all its many different facets.