Adoption Success

There is no "single most important action" that drives a successful KCS adoption. Below are the critical components for success.

• Gain cross-functional buy-in and alignment through thoughtful and continuous communications
• Develop content guidelines and workflows that support a just-in-time publishing model
• Define and practice the workflow before shopping for tools or making significant changes to the existing tools
• Develop measures and baseline values for expected results
• Implement training, coaching, and the license model for knowledge workers
• Implement training programs for managers

Many of the steps listed above are about creating understanding and buy-in of KCS by the knowledge workers and the managers. We cannot overemphasize the importance and need for communications. Successful adoptions have implemented the KCS license (proficiency) model with coaching, training, and certification programs to promote and assess understanding.

For large organizations with multiple domains adopting KCS, building a KCS Center of Excellence (CoE) is recommended. The foundation elements we talk about as part of Plan and Design, are unique to a domain; one size doesn't fit all. The KCS CoE works with each domain to conduct an assessment and identify unique elements of the workflow, content standard, and measurement framework that will help ensure success for the domain. For the details on building a KCS CoE please see Appendix B.