Section 2 The KCS Practices

Content is King! Knowledge is at the Heart of KCS

The KCS methodology is organized into three components:

• Knowledge: KCS articles, the output
• The Solve Loop: the reactive process
• The Evolve Loop: the reflective and continuous improvement process

Knowledge is at the heart of KCS. It must be timely, findable, and usable by the audience being served. The Practices and techniques in the Solve Loop focus on reusing, improving, and if it doesn't exist, creating knowledge articles as a by-product of responding to requests: knowledge work.  The Practices and techniques in Evolve Loop focus on learning from a collection of Solve Loop events and based on the patterns of knowledge reuse in the Solve Loop.   

Knowledge is the by-product of interaction. To make knowledge relevant and findable, it is captured and structured during the request-response interaction and in the context of the requestor. In KCS, we want the knowledge workers to use the knowledge base as the first resource in seeking a resolution to an issue. The act of searching captures the request and the environment in which the issue occurs.  A KCS article captures the requestors issue (in their own words) and the environment as well as the resolution from the responder. The article can also capture the responder's experience of resolving the issue. Once captured, KCS articles are improved over time based on demand and usage with the concept "reuse is review." This knowledge maintenance life cycle continues indefinitely as the knowledge evolves.