KCS v6 Trainer Certification Study Guide

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Introduction and Audience

This study guide is intended to help you prepare for the KCS v6 Trainer Certification exam. For details on the requirements and process of becoming a KCS Certified Trainer please see the:

KCS v6 Certified Trainer Instructions - for consultants and professional trainers who will plan to provide commercial KCS offerings.
KCS v6 Certified Internal Trainer Instructions - for professional trainers who intend to do training within a company (noncommercial).

Reading List

To prepare for the Certified Trainer exam, the following documents are required reading:

KCS Principles and Core Concepts
KCS v6 Practices Guide
KCS v6 Adoption & Transformation Guide
Measurement Matters – KCS benefits paper
Demand Based View of Support – Funnel and the Cloud model (pdf)
One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? by Fredrick Herzberg (Amazon), article summary here
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink (Amazon)
- 10 minute animated summary of Drive can be found here (Vimeo)
v6 Practices Workshop Exercises: Instructions and Key Points - Please email to receive access to this resource which lives in the KCS Certified Trainer Materials section of the Library.

Exam Topics and Objectives

The exam is based on the documentation listed in the Reading List above. No specific product or technology is covered in the exam. Specifics about individual company content standard, roles, workflow, and article life cycle states that are unique to an organization are not included in the exam.

The exam is based on the generic practices and vocabulary as described in the KCS documentation. The exam was built with the idea of answering the following question: “If you hired someone to manage or advise you on a KCS adoption, what would you expect them to know?”

The exam has 36 questions which are fill-in-the-blank format. The exam is proctored and the time allotted to complete the exam is 90 minutes. It can be taken in a test center or via online proctoring (video) or proctored by a KCS Certified Trainer. The exam results are scored by a Consortium for Service Innovation staff member and then reviewed with the candidate. The exam review takes about 90 minutes and can be done via a web session or in person.

We have provided links to the documents that discuss many of the exam objectives. The answers for some of the objectives do not reside in a single place and requires a thorough understanding of the KCS Principles, Core Concepts, and Practices and an understanding of the relationship between them.

The exam objectives include:

Identify the criterion that must be met in order to legitimately link non-KCS content (information from other sources) to an incident or knowledge article.
Identify the knowledge worker's responsibility when interacting with the KB in the Solve Loop.
Name references (other methods for problem solving) that align with the "seek to understand before you seek to solve" theme used in the KCS structured problem solving model.
Describe why it is important for the tools/technology/infrastructure to function at (or near) the speed of conversation.
Identify topics the content standard should include.
Describe how the concept of “Demand Driven” is reflected in how we manage articles.
Identify the five success criteria for customer self-service.
Provide examples of leading indicators or activities for KCS. (Also see v6 Practices Workshop Trainer Guide in the Reading List)
Describe why it is dangerous to put goals on KCS activities or over emphasize the leading indicators. (Also see v6 Practices Workshop Trainer Guide)
Provide examples of lagging indicators for customer support. (Also see v6 Practices Workshop Trainer Guide)
Describe how we determine who is creating value in a KCS environment (the concept).
Provide examples of leadership's responsibility to motivate knowledge workers to do KCS.
Describe the elements of the KCS practices that contribute to article consistency and quality.
Describe the elements of the KCS practices that contribute to minimizing article redundancy.
Identify who in the organization should be the primary owner for the foundation elements of the KCS methodology (content standard, workflow, performance assessment model, strategic framework, communications plan, motivating knowledge workers to do KCS).
Describe ways the KCS methodology supports the motivation factor of achievement (from the Herzberg Study) or mastery (from Drive).
Describe ways the KCS methodology supports the motivation factor of recognition (from the Herzberg Study).
Describe ways the KCS methodology supports the motivation factor of interesting work (from the Herzberg Study).
Describe ways the KCS methodology supports the motivation factors of responsibility and autonomy (from the Herzberg Study and Drive).
Provide reasons why the strategic framework is important for a successful KCS adoption.
Provide reasons why the communications plan is important for a successful KCS adoption.
Describe why visibility to incomplete WIP (Work in Progress) articles is important for the organization.
Describe the two fundamental objectives in creating and evolving articles. KCS seeks to create content that is good enough to be.....
Describe the difference between explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge.
Describe the advantages of the idea that "searching is creating".
Describe what we mean by demand-driven review.
Describe the responsibilities of the KCS Coach.
Provide the key points or concepts in responding to the question – “How do we measure knowledge worker contribution in KCS?"
Provide the key points or concepts in responding to the question – “How do we get knowledge workers to do KCS?” (Provide at least three motivators for knowledge workers)
Provide the key points or concepts in responding to the objection "We don't have time to create or maintain knowledge articles in the workflow" (Provide two supporting points)
Provide the four elements of a vision that leadership must define and communicate.
Describe why the Not Validated article state is important in promoting knowledge worker contribution to the knowledge base.
Describe the key learnings from the communications (email) exercise. (see v6 Practices Workshop Exercises: Instructions and Key Points )
Describe the key learning points from the koosh ball exercise. (see v6 Practices Workshop Exercises: Instructions and Key Points)
Describe the key learning points from the funnel and the cloud model (Demand Based View of Support - see also v6 Practices Workshop Trainer Guide)
Describe the key learning points from the body parts exercise. (see v6 Practices Workshop Exercises: Instructions and Key Points)

Thank you for your interest in KCS!