Knowledge Centered Support (Kcs) V5 Practices

Front 1

Who are the best people to capture and maintain knowledge?

Back 1

Support analyst because they use it everyday

Front 2

What are some of the KCS so whats?

Back 2

Improve MTTR/FCR, Improve/optimize employee sat, enable self service, build org learning (root cause)

Front 3

What are the phases of kcs adoption?

Back 3

Planning/design, adoption, proficiency and leverage of the knowledge base (PAPL)

Front 4

What's the focus on the planning and design adoption phase?

Back 4

build tools, gather baseline, set expectations internal and external

Front 5

What's the focus of the adoption phase?

Back 5

create internal understanding and excitement through learning; establish internal referenceability

Front 6

what's the focus of the proficiency phase?

Back 6

create and evolve kb, increase process efficiency, reduce time to proficiency; improve colloboration and analyst satisfaction

Front 7

what's the focus of the leverage the kb phase?

Back 7

optimize resource utlization, reduct support cost, increase customer success, improve employee sat, improve products and services

Front 8

What is knowledge defined by KCS?

Back 8

Information you can act on

Front 9

What are the key attributes of knowledge?

Back 9

gained with interaction with something and experience; always change, never 100% complete or accurate; validated through use, experience and interaction (not SMEs)

Front 10

The adoption of KCS represent a major shift in thinking. It requires the organization culture to shift from individual to

Back 10

Team

Front 11

The adoption of KCS represent a major shift in thinking. It requires the organization culture to shift from activity to

Back 11

value creation

Front 12

The adoption of KCS represent a major shift in thinking. It requires the organization culture to shift from completion to

Back 12

evolution

Front 13

The adoption of KCS represent a major shift in thinking. It requires the organization culture to shift from escalation to

Back 13

collaboration

Front 14

The adoption of KCS represent a major shift in thinking. It requires the organization culture to shift from content to

Back 14

context

Front 15

The adoption of KCS represent a major shift in thinking. It requires the organization culture to shift from knowing to

Back 15

learning and sharing

Front 16

KCS is a _________ and ITIL is a _________

Back 16

methodology and framework

Front 17

What are the three KCS process?

Back 17

KCS articles, solve and evolve loop

Front 18

What are the four types of knowledge that been identifed by kcs?

Back 18

KCS articles, people profiles (info like identity, experience, skills, interests and reputation), account profiles, customer configuration

Front 19

KCS articles integrate the perspective of what groups?

Back 19

customer, support analyst and company

Front 20

What does the customer's perspective include?

Back 20

Their experience of what is happening, info about the environment (product/version)

Front 21

What is the problem statement?

Back 21

It's the customer's KCS article perspective of what is happening and it is capture in their context (words and phrases).

Front 22

What is the resolution and cause statement?

Back 22

It's the support analyst's KCS article perspective of an issue.

Front 23

What is the company's perspective of a KCS article?

Back 23

the metadata,e.g., article state, date created, number of times article used, modification history, the date last modified

Front 24

What does the solve loop represent?

Back 24

It's the individul workflow tha tis driven by customer requests for assistance (incidents); so, it's transactional ... they're what we do to solve a customer's issue. It's the how for incident management

Front 25

What does the evolve loop represent?

Back 25

It's a continuous improvement process. It looks systematically at the collection of articles across many solve loop events. The organization level processes for the evolve loop enable the solve loop to be effecitve.

Front 26

What's the capture practice do?

Back 26

While working a problem, we capture the customer's context (words/phrases) as well as our own knowledge. Magic happens here ... tacit knowledge becomes explicit in the context of use.

Front 27

Why is it important to capture the customer's context and our knowledge of the problem or request.

Back 27

That's the moment that tacit knowledge (one that's impossible to think up) becomes explicit. That's where the real value is.

Front 28

What's the structure practice do?

Back 28

It takes everything we captured and structures it for reuse in simple templates. It allow us to identify articles when we're working a ticket.

Front 29

Why is it important to structure information that we captured?

Back 29

Makes it findable. Big problem; people can't find things because it's not structured and doesn't take advantage of search engines.

Front 30

What's the resue practice do?

Back 30

People have to MANTRA - search early and search often so we're not solving the same problem over and over. So, the search terms is the title of the article (we must get that in the article).

Front 31

What are search terms used for?

Back 31

The title of an article and target KCS articles

Front 32

What's the improve practice do?

Back 32

MANTRA: Reuse is review for support analyst. If we (analyst) see something wrong with an article we flag it or fix it.

Front 33

Who should fix an article?

Back 33

Someone who is confident in correction and authorized with KCS license.

Front 34

Who should flag an article?

Back 34

Someone who is not confident or licensed.

Front 35

How does KCS shift values for support analyst?

Back 35

It changes it from Stack ranking (how many cases you did, what you know, hero mentality) to rewarding sharing, improving and reusing collective experience.

Front 36

When are KCS article created?

Back 36

As a part of the problem solving process. Not after the fact.

Front 37

Should you create a KCS article if a resolution is not known?

Back 37

Yes, you create an article with the life of a ticket. Knowledge becomes a by product of problem solving (doing work)?

Front 38

When does a KCS article become visible to your team?

Back 38

Right away; it's a work a progress; so you let other people know you have an issue.

Front 39

What is knowledge engineering?

Back 39

It's the process where SME review incidents and write articles in a process disconnected from the problem solving process.

Front 40

What are the cons of knowledge engineering?

Back 40

It's done after the fact you lose the context of use ... you know that magic stuff that turns tacit into explicit.

Front 41

The statement "we don't know what we know until someone asks us" is symbolic of what pratice?

Back 41

The capture practice. Turning tactic to explicit.

Front 42

What is tacit knowledge made up of?

Back 42

Our experience, instict, context and successful processing of multiple variables or inputs at once.

Front 43

When does tacit information become explicit?

Back 43

In the conversation, often in response to a question or in the context of the need for information, i.e., the capture practice.

Front 44

What are some of things people do when turning tacit knowledge into explicit?

Back 44

They ask clarifying questions, the validate details, they search to find similiar situations

Front 45

What's the very first step in the capture practice?

Back 45

We must seek to understand the customer's experience before solving? We must get information about the perceived issue (in the customer's words) and environment it is occuring.

Front 46

Why is capturing the customer's context so important?

Back 46

We increase the findability of the article.

Front 47

What's the objective of capturing customer's context?

Back 47

To frame the customer's situation - to capture their need, perception, experience and relevant aspect of environment to input to problem solving process. The main objective is to use to improve the KCS article and to set it up.

Front 48

Should you change the problem statement if the customer's perception of the situation is wrong?

Back 48

No, preserving their perception will improve the findability of the article for other customers.

Front 49

Is capturing Technical accuracy for an article important?

Back 49

Not for the problem statement; remember that's the customer's words and improve findabily. For the environment, resolution and cause absolutely.

Front 50

Via self service, what kind of things would be great to capture?

Back 50

A customer's activities, e.g., search string, articles viewed, product/version info.

Front 51

Why is it important to capture customer activity in self service?

Back 51

It helps customers feel like the effort spent pursuing a resolution through self service was not a waste of time. This info can help expedite the problem solving process.

Front 52

How much customer information should you capture? (verbatim?)

Back 52

The goal is to capture the information that will make the article findable and usable by others

Front 53

How do you capture relevant context from the customer?

Back 53

Get words/phrases the customer used to describe the issue (even if technically inaccurate).

Front 54

What environment things should you write down?

Back 54

Get environment statements relevant or unique to the issue.

Front 55

Should you update environment statements?

Back 55

Yes, environment statements should be true before and after the issue is solved

Front 56

What should I do if an incident has the same symptoms but a different resolution?

Back 56

Create an article that lists the symptoms and different resolution.

Front 57

What about what I did to solve an incident? What should I do with that?

Back 57

Jot down diagnostic process used in resolving issues

Front 58

Should the resolution include work arounds?

Back 58

This is where we disagree and it clashes with ITIL. KCS states that resolution statements completely resolve the issue described. ITIL incident management is about getting a work around in place... semantics?

Front 59

The MANTRA seek to understand before we solve is relevant to which practice?

Back 59

The capture practice

Front 60

What are the stages of an article?

Back 60

Work-in-Progress (draft) to approved/published

Front 61

What does it mean approved/published?

Back 61

It means we're confident in the resolution. (official answer); also, could mean you publish it externally.

Front 62

What makes up the WIP article?

Back 62

Content like problem and environment

Front 63

Why does KCS do WIP articles?

Back 63

WIP article lets other Analysts in the organization know that the problem has been reported.

Front 64

What categories do KCS articles have?

Back 64

Issue (customer context), environment, resolution, cause and metadata

Front 65

Once the issue is understand and resolution is known ... what should you do with the environment statements?

Back 65

Refine it to make sure it's relevant. You can change it.

Front 66

Why do we structure content?

Back 66

Search engines can narrow between fields, it's prescriptive so you get good content in (i.e., easier to write), and it improves readability/usability.

Front 67

What does complete thoughts, not complete sentences mean?

Back 67

Capture at or near the speed of conversation the main thought and not sentence. We're not asking support analysts to become tech writers.

Front 68

What does search early, search often mean?

Back 68

It's getting the support analyst to start their search as they capture the conversation with the client, and continue to search throughout the life of the incident

Front 69

Why do we encourage analysts to search often?

Back 69

New information collected could lead to an existing article. Also, it's about making sure we're not reinventing the wheel. You may find that someone else is working the same issue (chance to colloborate)

Front 70

Why do we encourage analysts to search early?

Back 70

Articles could not only solve the problem but give the analyst a lead with a similiar issue.

Front 71

Before an article is saved ... what should an analyst do (behavior)?

Back 71

Search the KB one more time to make sure they're not creating a dup

Front 72

How long should a KCS article be?

Back 72

As a rule of thumb, keep it to one page and link to other articles that help you. Example, setting up a computer with links to adding it to the domain, setting up the IP, setting up printing, installing software (that's a good check list example).

Front 73

Why is linking so important with KCS articles? Why not plop it all in one article?

Back 73

Because it screws with context sensitive searching, it eliminates redundancy (imagine explaining how to connect to domain over and over), you don't have to maintain that info in several places, you cater to both more experienced and less experienced users (imagine, a guy who knows his stuff will look at it as a checklist but someone starting will review each article).

Front 74

Why is it important to link tickets to articles?

Back 74

Tells you what's resolving and being referenced for tickets; you can use that in the evolve loop. It tells you your participation rate; informs you of what problems should be addressed and requests should be automated.

Front 75

What is KCS term linking refer to?

Back 75

Connecting articles to incidents (tickets)

Front 76

What happens if you can't link articles to tickets?

Back 76

You're at a severe disadvantage. You miss out on evolve loop practices: participation rate and problem management; new vs known analysis; the ability to know when to turn on self service (i.e,. 50/50 new vs reuse rate)

Front 77

What should an analyst do if they find an existing article, link it to the incident and want to update it?

Back 77

Update the additional symptoms or relevant environment information. If it's a different resolution than create a new article. You can have Similiar symptoms and environment but a different resolution.

Front 78

What should an analyst do if they find a different resolution for an incident, but it has the same symptoms and environment?

Back 78

Create a new article.

Front 79

What's KCS' stance on linking tickets to external articles?

Back 79

A bunch of ifs. They get philosphical. This is a good question because a lot of times you find what to do online. I say copy it to your KB and footnote where you got it. They say as long as the info is in a database, the resolution is findable by search, it's accessible to audience being served and the content is in the context of the audience then all good. That's f'ing complicated. I say make it simplier. Use footnotes.

Front 80

What functionality should you get from linking?

Back 80

Ability to do reporting, influencing search-ranking algorithm (more links, higher results), should be able to unlink articles, the ability to link multiple articles using resolved or referenced, the analyst should be able to see the current state of an article and the state used at the time of linking

Front 81

What should do if you see many incidents linked to an article?

Back 81

If it's an issue then do problem management and possibly leading up to change. If it's a service request then look for ways to automate.

Front 82

Why does linking matter to an analyst? What's in it for me? WIIFM?

Back 82

Well, If you link a bunch of incidents to an article it will signal we need to do problem management and possibly make a change. If you do it for service requests then we know we either need to make it easier, automate it, train on it. Lastly, we'll know when to turn on self service: 50% new articles vs 50% resuse; so, we'll get less calls

Front 83

If a customer gives irrelevant, misleading, inaccurate or inappropriate to audience info ... then what should an analyst do?

Back 83

Change the environment field. Leave the problem statement. Technical accuracy is not required. It's all about search and perception when it comes to the problem statement.

Front 84

What does the spirit of reuse is review mean?

Back 84

It's a culture of collective ownership. The kb is ours.

Front 85

What percentage of KCS articles will rarely or never be reused?

Back 85

80% ... 20% gets reused a lot.

Front 86

Why do we document everything if only 20% gets used?

Back 86

Because we can't predict what 20% gets used.

Front 87

Compare KCS articles reuse patterns for analysts and for clients?

Back 87

They're different. There are issue where customers will use self service and be happy but won't bother to open an incident (suffering in silence) (good stat to see). You can do the same kind of analyt (problem/change/automation/training) for clients.

Front 88

What does the MANTRA - if if a question is worth answering or the problem is worth solving, it is worth having in the kb?

Back 88

Get it, b/c we can't predict what is of value. Let the other KCS practices sort it out.

Front 89

What maintenance advantage do you get from from review is reuse?

Back 89

You improve those that are getting linked and don't waste time on those that are not. So demand drives resource allocation. Reviewing every KCS article is a waste of time and money.

Front 90

Who are the best people for creating and reviewing KCS articles?

Back 90

The people who use it everyday.

Front 91

What does KCS prescribe when it comes to updating articles.

Back 91

I don't agree ... they want "licensed KCS" people to make changes; and, unlicensed people to flag it. Their def of licensed is certified. Personally, I think you can train and test this in house. Don't need to spend $1000 bucks on it.

Front 92

Why is the MANTRA flag it or fix it important?

Back 92

Because it leads to continuous improvement.

Front 93

What KPIs do you pull from linking articles to tickets?

Back 93

Participation rate (individual/team), calculate reuse, new vs known analysis (100 tickets came in and we knew about 90 of them ... this is a hard to get b/c of WIIFM); also, when you're create rate matches your reuse rate then you're ready to market self service, but if you're not linking then you won't know what is new or reused.

Front 94

When is a new KCS article necessary?

Back 94

Generally, there should be one KCS article per problem that has a unique resolution and cause ... they're fuzzy ... not always the case. An article could have multiple ways to solve. (temporary work around for a quick way to resolve and perm fix).

Front 95

Why are WIP articles important?

Back 95

It lets other people know that you're on it. This remove duplicate effort.

Front 96

What should you do if you find an analyst trying to assess the future value of a kcs article?

Back 96

Remind them of the mantra. If it's worth solving then it's worth saving. Our goal is to create a kb with our collective experience.

Front 97

What should you do if you find an analyst writing an article trying to cover other situations that did not occur in the incident?

Back 97

Remind them that we're solving the issue at hand.

Front 98

What's KCS' view on article redundancy?

Back 98

It's heatlhy and shows use. It's a problem when it adversely affects findability and usability of the content.

Front 99

What are some examples of good redundancy?

Back 99

A KCS article with the same issue but multiple audiences. You can define audience in environment (how to setup computers for a particular environment); KCS articles with different experiences but same resolution and casue

Front 100

What should you do with duplicate articles?

Back 100

Keep the oldest because you want the metadata; take the latest most relevent content from both and put it into the old one; archive the newest one

Front 101

What's KCS' stance on duplicate articles?

Back 101

It's inevitable and healthy. It's a necessary ingredient. They become an issue when multiple articles with similiar symptoms and resolution are showing up in search, i.e., duplicates.

Front 102

What causes duplicate articles?

Back 102

A customer encountering an issue describes it differently (that's ok); support analysts are trying to pump out articles to reach goals (bad behavior); support analysts are not using the MANTRA search early and search often or search before you save; the culture discourages editing articles that "belong" to other people.

Front 103

What does individual ownership of articles do?

Back 103

It's death to knowledge management.

Front 104

What happens to ticket-article links when you find duplicate articles?

Back 104

Using the older articles (in theory) keeps more of the links; you archive the newest article so it doesn't show in search but you don't lose the links (my notes: should be a way to transfer the links)

Front 105

What's KCS' stance on how to manage licensing (the right to edit)?

Back 105

I'm not buying it (at least the cert program but that's my stance on education) ... they say user profiles should be able to give those who get the certification the right to update.

Front 106

What rights to licensed users have in the KCS world?

Back 106

The ability to edit the article and to publish to a broader audience (customers)

Front 107

What MANTRAs represent the collective ownership value for the solve loop at the behavior level?

Back 107

Create an article if one doesn't exist, modify it if it does; link, update articles tates as appropriate, flag it or fix it; reuse is review (i'm sure there are others)

Front 108

What does KCS say about using judgement?

Back 108

KCS doesn't require less skilled people; in fact, we need really good judgement; so, as before, you'd go and get a 2nd opinion from a colleague; you still do that here when working tickets/article. In fact, the need for good judgement increases.

Front 109

How structured and formal are conversations, IM and email?

Back 109

They are very unstructured, informal and dynamic

Front 110

How structured and formal are Diagnostic guides, Configurate Guides and product Manuals?

Back 110

They are very structured, formal and static

Front 111

How structured and formal are KCS Articles?

Back 111

They're right in the middle of informal/dynamic (e.g., conversations, email) and very formal and static (e.g., product manuals and configuration guides)

Front 112

What are disadvantages of formal and static content like product manuals and configuration guides?

Back 112

They take a while to get in the hands of those who need it. The turn around time to make this content misses the 30 day usability of the content.

Front 113

When should we capture resolution and troubleshooting?

Back 113

During the the discovery of the case. Do no wait until the end.

Front 114

What happens to the evolve loop if the solve loop isn't creating patterns, trends and just in time content?

Back 114

The evolve loop is built on the solve loop and is about enabling the solve loop.

Front 115

Do the age of article and size of the kb matter?

Back 115

No, if we are finding relevant KCS articles. If we're having problems finding things then archiving old stuff only treats the symptom. The cause is most likely structure, context of content and net enough info in environment statements.

Front 116

What happens if you start archiving KCS articles?

Back 116

You might improve relevance of search (not recommended b/c you're treating the symptom). The reduction will compromise the completeness of the knowledge. You could argue the older stuff is very valuable as people leave the organization or forget how to handle the old content.

Front 117

In regards to migrating old non-KCS knowledge content ... what percentage of it will never get used?

Back 117

A high 90 to 95% will never be referenced. They suggest not to migrate.

Front 118

What should you do with old non-KCS knowledge content?

Back 118

Leave it behind. KCS studies show that 90 to 95% of the content never gets used again. The content isn't structured or expressed in the customer's context; also, the investment in time and money to script the legacy knowledge isn't worth it.

Front 119

What does KCS recommend you should do with old content?

Back 119

Leave it behind as readly. Get staff to rely on searching the new knowledge base first. Re-purpose the old articles by adding them to the kb in the new structure with customer context.

Front 120

What does KCS recommend to do with new product knowledge?

Back 120

Don't add it to the kb (personally, I don't agree). Let demand drive the questions. They do recommend capturing questions/issues from training sessions, alpha and beta groups b/c you get customer context.

Front 121

What's KCS' stance on multi-cultural and lingual support?

Back 121

They do not address cultural/localization issues with contnet. They offer "relief" for language support. They state complete thoughts are easier to translate, and structure gives meaning.

Front 122

How are some companies using machine translation with KCS?

Back 122

Just do it (they're translating everything); Demand drive (only articles that get reused get translated); the hybrid (use of machine translation and manual post edit for reused articles); side by side (offering original article along with machine translated to customers)

Front 123

Ideally, how long are KCS articles?

Back 123

A page or less. You can always link to other article to round out an article.

Front 124

Why do we structure articles?

Back 124

To increase findability and readability

Front 125

What are the basic elements of a kcs article?

Back 125

Issue, Environment, Resolution, Cause, Metadata

Front 126

What should happen with information that is customer specific (contact details/entitlement)?

Back 126

That should stay in the incident management system and out of KCS.

Front 127

How do you get people to follow the structure?

Back 127

The coaches play a big part of getting people to get context (seek to understand) before troubleshooting. It's a hump you have to get over.

Front 128

What does the resolution field contain?

Back 128

The answer, work around or fix.

Front 129

What should you do if a resolution requires access, tools or skills that not available to the analyst or customer?

Back 129

Create the article (so they know a fix exists) and how to escalate. Put in the "Internal Resolution" field the other info. It's not visible to customers even on published articles.

Front 130

What is the cause test field?

Back 130

It's an optional field you could put in the system so you can document if the cause is your issue. Example - not get an IP; ipconfig and confirm.

Front 131

What meta data does KCS recommend you capture?

Back 131

Author, owner, date created, date last modified, number of times used, last modified, and life cycle state. They also caution not to put too much.

Front 132

What's KCS' stance on multimedia as content?

Back 132

They love it and say everything else stays the same. Images can bridge a language gap.

Front 133

How do you integrate community knowledge into kb.

Back 133

Let them add to the kb (think Q&A) and capture their search statements

Front 134

What are the KCS article life cycle states?

Back 134

Work in progress (WIP), Draft, Approved and Published. Optional Technical review, compliance review, rework and archive

Front 135

Describe how an article moves through the life cycle states?

Back 135

It's non linear. They could bounce from WIP to published depending the person writing the article (if they are licensed)

Front 136

What are the attributes of WIP article?

Back 136

Doesn't include a resolution, but question and some or all of environment are captured.

Front 137

What should you do with a WIP article that never gets solved?

Back 137

If there's nothing to add (like the customer solved by doing x) then delete it.

Front 138

What are the attributes of a DRAFT article?

Back 138

The article is complete: has a resolution, but we're not confident in structure so won't be used by customers, but other analysts can use it. The draft states support the concept of if it's worth answering then it's worth having in the KB. The draft state gives the analyst an opportunity to say "here is what I did in this situation, but I have not been able to validate the accuracy."

Front 139

What DRAFT articles should become approved?

Back 139

Early on with limited publishers and coaches; let reuse drive review. Otherwise it would be too much overhead to review everything. Becomes a efficient system.

Front 140

In the KCS licensing model ... who should be creating draft articles?

Back 140

KCS candidates. The Coach will review their work.

Front 141

What are the attributes of an APPROVED article?

Back 141

The KCS article is complete and reusable, and we have confidence in the resolution and it complies with content standard..

Front 142

Who creates APPROVED KCS articles?

Back 142

A KCS contributor, publisher, KDE or coach. A coach can also move it forward in the queue.

Front 143

Early on in KCS adoption, what types of articles are candidates to be pushed into PUBLISHED status?

Back 143

Those in APPROVED state

Front 144

In a mature KCS environment, what types of articles are candidates to be pushed in PUBLISHED state?

Back 144

Ideally, we have a lot of KCS publishers; so, they go right from Draft to Published.

Front 145

What are the attributes of a PUBLISHED article?

Back 145

They're ready to use outside of support.

Front 146

Who can modify a published article?

Back 146

A KCS publisher. Those who are not publishers can flag the article or move it into rework status for review by publisher.

Front 147

How long should you follow the publish after resuse model - where only highly used draft articles are being made available?

Back 147

Don't get stuck here. It's a good place to start, but you want to mature that you're publishing quickly. A goal of the leveraging phase in the adoption model calls for the 90/90 goal: 90% of content in KB should be available to customers in 90 minutes.

Front 148

What's the 90/90 goal?

Back 148

90% of KB should be available to customer in 90 minutes. Part of the phase 4 (leveraging) adoption guide.

Front 149

What are the attributes of the TECHNICAL REVIEW article state?

Back 149

We're using an article and not confident in resolution or cause. This supports the flag it or fix it.

Front 150

Who can put an article in technical review?

Back 150

Anyone who can flag it or fix it ... they should also include notes.

Front 151

What are the attributes of COMPLIANCE REVIEW article state?

Back 151

Not in published state; we're concerned it contains sensitive data. Pertains to resolution or cause section. This is a way to flag or fix.

Front 152

Who can put an article in COMPLIANCE REVIEW?

Back 152

Anyone who can flag or fix. They should add notes to their concerns.

Front 153

What are the attributes of the REWORK article state?

Back 153

In a published state, and someone is using the flag it/fix it to send to a contributor, publisher or coach.

Front 154

Who can put an article in REWORK state?

Back 154

Anyone can, but it's intended for licensed users. Ex. A contributor reworks a published article and sends it to the coach.

Front 155

How can a coach use the REWORK state?

Back 155

He can review a contributers work that's in draft and send it to rework for the contributor to update.

Front 156

What are the attributes of the ARCHIVE state?

Back 156

An article goes into this state if it's determined it has no value. It won't show up in search.

Front 157

Why do we ARCHIVE articles and not delete them?

Back 157

Because you break the incident link; there maybe regulatory requirements

Front 158

When should WIP articles exist?

Back 158

Only when the problem is being worked on.

Front 159

What should happen to a WIP article after a case is closed?

Back 159

If there's a resolution then the article should be updated and moved to DRAFT, APPROVED or PUBLISHED depending on who added it and KCS maturity. If there's no resolution then it should be deleted if you can add useful knowledge.

Front 160

What the conveyor belt model to publishing articles?

Back 160

Once an article has X amount of views then it will be published in Y amount of time. So, you have a chance to review it. A variation to the publishing KCS model where a publisher has to publish it.

Front 161

Describe article publishing in a mature KCS environment?

Back 161

It's happening just in time. The 90/90 rule. 90% available in 90 minutes.

Front 162

What type of articles should never be shared outside of the organization?

Back 162

Bugs in security, proprietary technical understanding

Front 163

What is a visibility matrix?

Back 163

It's a way to set appropriate levels of security for knowledge. It maps out the audiences (internal, partners, customers) agaisnt KCS article attributes that affects visibility (state, knowledge domain, special considerations) and defines access rights.

Front 164

As a KCS article matures and more articles are getting published quickly ... what are some concerns?

Back 164

You should have a visibility matrix in place so you don't accidently share content. Good judgement is required by the publisher.

Front 165

What could cause KCS to stagnate?

Back 165

If articles don't get published. The analysts are doing all this work so they get less calls and have an effective self service model. They could lose faith in the system if you don't deliver.

Front 166

How long before the value of a KCS article starts to diminish?

Back 166

30 days after the issue is discovered. Unfortunately, many non KCS organization take 60 to 90 days to document and release articles. Dell and HP did this study and saw most issues reoccur for 30 days with a huge drop off afterwards.

Front 167

What is the purpose of term - content standard?

Back 167

Everyone on the support team capturing appropriate information in a predictable format. A good content standard defines the content structure and purpose of each required field, the quality criteria for a good KCS article, and the visibility of the knowledge.

Front 168

What should you make available to the analyst in the spirit of good content standard.

Back 168

A quick reference guide (one page sheet article quality criteria); KCS article structure definitions (problem, resolution, cause, metadata); good and bad KCS articles, metadata defnition, life cycle states, visibility matrix, templates (and directions for completing them); style guide; supporting material; vocabulary; multi-language considerations; multimedia considerations

Front 169

What role is most important when starting KCS?

Back 169

The coach role: they play a major role in the quality of the knowledge base content by reviewing the Support Analyst's workflow and articles.

Front 170

What is the KCS' Coach goal?

Back 170

It's support the analyst in learning to use KCS processes, adhering to the content standard, and using the most effective problem solving process. The coach has succeeded when the Support Analysts are efficiently and independently creating high quality articles.

Front 171

How do you track KCS competency, i.e., track Analyst skills and abilities to create quality articles?

Back 171

Using the Article Quality Index (AQI)

Front 172

What are the 5 elements that contribute to quality KCS articles?

Back 172

AQI is metric used; licensing/coaching model; having a good content standard; broad and balanced performance assessment; flag it or fix it.

Front 173

What do you check to give a KCS contributor a score?

Back 173

If there's a duplicate article, the problem/environment/cause/resolution are complete; content clarity (complete thoughts not sentences); title reflects article content; correct hyperlinks; metadata set appropriately (article state, type)

Front 174

How do you give some an AQI score?

Back 174

It's a manual sampling process, and you look at a few things: If there's a duplicate article, the problem/environment/cause/resolution are complete; content clarity (complete thoughts not sentences); title reflects article content; correct hyperlinks; metadata set appropriately (article state, type)

Front 175

What are some optional fields typically scored as part of AQI?

Back 175

Content to thin (not enough content captured to make the problem distinct); Incomplete (critical information missing); duplicate (slightly different - reviewer find a duplicate article that preceded this articles date; compound (content is written with multiple thoughts); mixed environment content; environment content not to standard (not using right product names); fix not complete or usable; wordy (complete thoughts not complete sentences); too specific (ex. putting node name or internal system identifier); customer can not see reference material; hyperlink not visible to intended audience; article not appropriate for audience; metadata not set correctly

Front 176

Should you weight your AQI category scores (e.g., duplicates x 2 or 5)?

Back 176

It's up to you; if you do that then you make some categories more important than others. Duplicates are a good one to weigh; if someone is making duplicates then you want to bring down their score. You want it to stick out.

Front 177

What's the AQI formula?

Back 177

AQI = 1 - [number of issues found x (weight-optional)/(# of articles reviewed x categories)] .... 1 - [(18 x 2=36)/41 x 14] = 93.7%

Front 178

What's the typical process for AQI scoring?

Back 178

Put together a checklng and scoring system; evaluate a sampling of KCS articles; get enough of a sample (30 is a magical statistical sample); calculate AQI and summary report; provide feedback from coach to support analysts and management

Front 179

How frequently should you do AQI scoring?

Back 179

During roll out ... weekly. Once you mature then it's monthly.

Front 180

How much time does an organization spend doing AQI scoring?

Back 180

At first a lot, i.e., during the roll out weekly (couple of hours per coach), but as the organization matures no more than a few hours per reviewer per month.

Front 181

Coaches look at specific thing when doing AQI?

Back 181

They can use it as an opportunity to evaluate other ITIL work related things like case documentation and handling, customer interaction, problem solving process, and technical accuracy.

Front 182

How do you assess linking accuracy?

Back 182

You perform a new vs known analysis. It's done quarterly or semi annual.

Front 183

How could you use AQI scoring to make sure articles are getting linked to incidents?

Back 183

Add a category that looks for it - “is the article linked to the case resolving the issue documented in the case”

Front 184

What is a linked rate?

Back 184

% of of cases closed with an article linked

Front 185

What's a good linked rate %?

Back 185

CSI finds it to be between 60% to 80% in mature organizations.

Front 186

Why is it important to have linking rates? So what & WIIFM?

Back 186

It provides credible and actionable input to product management and development about the highest impact issues. You could use to justify a cost. It also gives you leading indicator - participation rate

Front 187

Why is the concept of demand driven review critical?

Back 187

Collective Responsibility: people must feel a sense of ownership over all the content. Feeling that someone else owns it kills KCS (risk).

Front 188

How do you create a culture where there's a collective responsiblity of the content, and no one owns articles (the KCS killer)?

Back 188

Through coaching, competency program, communications from the leaders, performance assessment program, and the reward and recognition program.

Front 189

What functionality should a system have if a customer gives an article good feedback?

Back 189

The creator, the people who reused and modified it should all get notified.

Front 190

What functionality should a system have if a customer flags an article incomplete or confusing?

Back 190

Should be sent into a queue for rework.

Front 191

As the KCS organization becomes mature and analyst are meeting the 90/90 rule ... how do you use customers for feedback?

Back 191

Some suggestions ... allow them to make public comments, allow them to make private comments with a checkbox for follow up, select power users that can create and modify articles.

Front 192

What did the CSI survey about "how good is good enough?" find was very important?

Back 192

The survey was 94% internal and 6% customers - technical accuracy and relevant, problem and solution, cause, complete information, quickly found, clarity of content, valid hyperlink; config info; vendor sense of confidence

Front 193

Based of CSI's study ... how to do customers feel about a company that withholds information for technical accuracy?

Back 193

They don't fault the company.

Front 194

Based of CSI's study ... how to do customers feel about a company that withholds information for editorial perfection?

Back 194

They fault the company.

Front 195

Based of CSI studies ... what do they say of content speed/accuracy vs presentation and format?

Back 195

Content speed and accuracy is more important that presentation and format.

Front 196

What does CSI recommendations on using their client assesment of content (e.g., speed/accuracy trumps presentation and format)?

Back 196

Run the same question-are with your clients to see if they hold true. Nothing replaces real world results.

Front 197

What are Evolve loop articles?

Back 197

They are high value articles created by knowledge domain experts and are based of patterns and trends in the solve loop content. Think ... how to handle viruses with all the virus articles that we have. It's almost like problem management.

Front 198

What are example of Evolve Loop articles?

Back 198

Procedural articles; resolution paths (a collection of linked KCS articles); high impact issues (events); articles created to fill in the gaps from both web searches (customers) and internal

Front 199

Why does the evolve loop exist?

Back 199

To make sense of the solve loop (1000s of articles) and make continuous service improvement happen

Front 200

What are knowledge domains?

Back 200

Virtual collections of KCS articles about a product family or a technology or group of technologies.

Front 201

Within a Knowledge Domain, do customers experience issues in many, varied/unpredictable or limited ways?

Back 201

Customers most frequently experience failures in a limited number of ways, perhaps 5 to 7 high level generic symptom categories.

Front 202

Who should take a bunch of KCS articles (diagnostic) say on not being able to hit a website and create an evolve loop article stepping through the different scenarios?

Back 202

The Knowledge Domain Expert

Front 203

What are CSI's thoughts on merging articles?

Back 203

The key is findability; sometimes it makes sense to have multiple articles for the same issues linked; maybe different audience

Front 204

How do you find out what evolve loop articles you need to fill the gaps of your client self service needs?

Back 204

Web analytics tells you what they were looking for and is candidate content.

Front 205

What should happen to internal (analyst) article reuse as self service use rises?

Back 205

It should go down because are not calling in about the issue.

Front 206

What's the objective of the new vs known analysis?

Back 206

Find out where you can spend less of your people time (switch to self service) on and accelerate resolution of new issues (getting the right people on the right issues).

Front 207

How far (escalation path) should a new vs known analysis go?

Back 207

Levels 1 to 3 and hardware, software, networking and services

Front 208

How is the new vs known analysis done?

Back 208

Manually and it includes SMEs, data collection and a lot of reviewing (4 to 6 hours) ... personally, i don't see this happening

Front 209

What is a known issue?

Back 209

It's information that is captured and findable; linked to an incident

Front 210

What makes a self service portal successful?

Back 210

A sufficient number of articles are available to customers in a timely manner; they can find the articles; navigation on the self service is positive; a marketing plan

Front 211

What's considered a successful self service portal?

Back 211

One where customers find what they're looking for 40-50% of the time

Front 212

What does the 90/90 rule do for a self service portal?

Back 212

It makes it extremely successful; clients are finding what they need 80% of the time

Front 213

Are customers more likely to call us about an issue or go online to a self service portal?

Back 213

People are 10 times more likely to call; they don't want to call in. According to KCS findings

Front 214

How do you know you're ready to do self service and hit that 40 to 50% success rate?

Back 214

One key indicator is when internally you're creating as much as you're reusing. You have enough volume to share and get those rates up.

Front 215

When do you enable/promote self service? When do you know you're ready?

Back 215

When your analyst are reusing and much as they creating 50/50 then you're ready.

Front 216

What does no dead ends mean in regards to self service?

Back 216

It means once the customer has started the problem solving process in the self service channel, they don't have to stop and start over if they don't find something. They can create a ticket or launch a chat session. All of the customer's activities should be brought over to the ticket: what they searched for, looked at it.

Front 217

Why are no dead ends important in regards to self service important?

Back 217

Microsoft found that if there were no dead ends then customers were much more willing to go back and use self service to look or spawn a ticket or chat session.

Front 218

At minimum, what options should you present for your clients to find things through self service?

Back 218

a list of product specific top ten; an index of table of contents, basic search, advanced search

Front 219

What should you do to put a marketing campaign in place for self service knowledge?

Back 219

CSI has some suggestions; mostly, they say reach out to a marketing professional to build a marketing plan. Suggestions include use recorded message to promote self service, extend hold times (I don't like that one); turn off phones and make self service the only path (that seems crazy to me); co-browsing - the client can see the analyst searching the kb using the self service portal; when you close a ticket include a link to the article (promotes exposure).

Front 220

How do you put a value on a article?

Back 220

In the early stages of adoption the value is determined by reuse; as you open up self service it becomes much more difficult. CSI tells stories of people using page view, internal link and feedback (1 - 2% of time happens).

Front 221

When should an analyst move into the analysis stage of an incident?

Back 221

After they've captured context (like a detective), searched the KB, refine search as they learn more

Front 222

What does "managing the conversation" mean?

Back 222

As an analyst moves through the KCS/Incident/Request process ... they let the client know where they are. Example - getting customer info; there's a pause; let them know you're document and searching the knowledge base for additional information ... if kb finds the answer then let them know they can access it too. Insert good mantra here/marketing slogan. We believe it's worth answering its worth having in our knowledge base.

Front 223

What are the stages of "managing the conversation"?

Back 223

Admin (contact info) > capture context > lookup kb > analysis > research > admin wrap up

Front 224

How is KCS enabling collaborative?

Back 224

They are working on profiles (what people know) and skills based routing; directed swarm

Front 225

What are some requirements software must meet to be KCS verified?

Back 225

An article object and search engine; support distinction between problem content and environment content; search granularity (search in problem field; search in environment field); visibility management (i.e., permissions); article state categories (WIP > Draft > Approved > Published); search arguments preserved; reporting/metrics; functions at the speed of conversation

Front 226

What's the ideal situation when it comes to ticketing and knowledge management?

Back 226

Tight integration ... the analyst is doing their work and part of it is in the KB and IM

Front 227

What are the 5 things that influence behavior when it comes to implementing KCS?

Back 227

Tool (functionality, navigation, integration), measures, recognition/reputation, understanding WIIFM, coaching

Front 228

What are two key considerations when designing a service analyst's workflow, i.e., managing the conversation, ticket, kcs article?

Back 228

Complexity and volume. High complexity and low volume have longer resolution times; in low complexity and high volume tickets take 5 to 10 minutes and the level of redundant work is high

Front 229

What is the quick click feature?

Back 229

Allows a support analyst to record, with a single click, the fact the issue was handled, e.g., fills in resolution, links to article. By clicking on this the analyst will see the latest information.

Front 230

What type of integration is ideal with web portals (i.e., self service)?

Back 230

No dead ends: the user can search (have all the info brought over into a ticketing system) and create a ticket.

Front 231

What are CSI's thought on search engines?

Back 231

The point out the different types of searches and how relevancy plays a role. Bottom line though: it's important to understand how the search engine works; so trainers and coaches can advise all knowledge contributors on the best way to search

Front 232

What considerations does CSI offer when it comes to search technology?

Back 232

It should be able to search other sources; do you need to support synonyms; how much burden does the contributer feel; what reports are available to drive evolve loop

Front 233

How do you handle the shortcomings of search?

Back 233

Find weaknesses about search from informal conversations, search analytics, testing of common queries; find out if there's a knowledge gap; are there multiple articles with different resolutions; content difficult to read; are important words or definitive articles not showing up in the top of the results lists; are customers struggling in a certain area in re: to search; evaluate what you put in place to see if it works.

Front 234

What happens if you're seeing a lot of duplicate articles?

Back 234

Most likely a break down in the problem solving process. People are searching early and often; also, mgmt could be a problem by putting metrics on the wrong activities or by not revoking the KCS license of someone who is falling behind.

Front 235

How have support organizations assessed internal performance?

Back 235

There's been too much of a focus on individual and a hero mentality. They practice stack ranking? So, our traditional mgmt is at odds with KCS. A key lesson illustrates this ... KCS early on put value on creating articles and this lead to a lot of articles.

Front 236

What the key theme for KCS's performance assessment?

Back 236

There's an emphasis on collaboration, sharing, using, and improving collective knowledge rather than individual knowledge. In addition, there's more of emphasis on leadership then day to day management, e.g., define and set goals, ensure tool and infrastructure are integrated and align, provide support analysts with visibility to performance feedback.

Front 237

What's CSI's philosophy around the licensing model?

Back 237

It's like learning to drive. You can do all the studying you want, but you have to practice to get good at it.

Front 238

What is the purpose of the KCS Council?

Back 238

It's mission is to drive continuous improvement to the content standard, the work flow, tool functionality and integration, and the feedback/reporting system

Front 239

Who serves on the KCS council and adoption team?

Back 239

Coaches, Domain Experts and representatives from management, Executive sponsor, Program Manager ... also IT and Web Liaison; also, managers and anaylsts

Front 240

What two things should you consider when figuring out how many people you need on the KCS council?

Back 240

The nature of work being done (complexity, volume, rate of redundancy) and maturity of existing KCS processes

Front 241

For high complex environments (technical) ... what's the goal when it comes to licensing analyst?

Back 241

You want to get most of them at the publisher level so you can pump articles out to self service

Front 242

What roles exist in KCS?

Back 242

Candidate, Contributor, Publisher, Coach & Knowledge Domain Expert (KDE)

Front 243

What should a KCS candidate understand?

Back 243

Structured problem solving, capturing the customer's context, searching/finding articles, review/link/flag articles, modify their own articles, frame new articles (WIP/Draft).

Front 244

Which KCS candidate level can not update an article created by someone else in draft mode?

Back 244

Candidate

Front 245

Which lowest level candidate can move an article from draft to approved (for internal use) without the coaches review?

Back 245

Contributor

Front 246

How long is a KCS contributor license good for?

Back 246

Two years; after that they should retake it if they haven't gotten the publisher

Front 247

How does one become a contributor (KCS role)?

Back 247

By taking a licensing exam

Front 248

What roles can publish to a self service portal?

Back 248

The publisher and coach

Front 249

How does one become a KCS publisher?

Back 249

They get high AQI scores, consistently positive feedback on and high reuse of article content.

Front 250

Can KCS publishers archive or delete content that's in a self service portal?

Back 250

Not typically, they can flag however. CSI says not too because of the complexity of publishing.

Front 251

Which role is the most critical when adopting?

Back 251

The KCS coach role are the change agents. They are invaluable in helping people develop their KCS competencies.

Front 252

When are KCS coaches successful?

Back 252

When people are moving from Candidate to Contributor to Publisher.

Front 253

What are the KCS coaches responsibilities?

Back 253

To follow up with people, improve people's skills, help candidates under problem solving workflow, influence people to do good KM, influence people to apply standards for creating and improving knowledge, review articles framed by KCS candidates; perform AQI; provide feedback to users and management; participate in KCS council

Front 254

Who does CSI recommend be coaches?

Back 254

Someone who does it part time: part time coach and analyst. They've seen success b/c they are doing the job. If you do full time coaches then they lose touch with the reality of problem solving and as a result lose credibility. (like a Sergeant)

Front 255

What does effective coaching rely on?

Back 255

Excellent communication skills (concepts, feedback, influence to get results); understanding support processes and tools; listening skills, mindfulness of feelings; demonstrated commitment to the success of team members; demonstrated ability to manage time, analyze trends, proactively communicate with management/users, motivate people through helping them achieve recognition and ability to deal with objections

Front 256

Who should be coaches? Supervisors?

Back 256

No, coaches are best selected by their peers and should have a strong influencing skills and a passion for KCS principles. They don't have to be technical experts.

Front 257

During the adoption phase ... how many coaches should you have per analysts?

Back 257

It's a 1 to 8 ratio

Front 258

What the time requirement for coaching a kcs candidate?

Back 258

2 to 3 hours a week for 6 to 8 weeks.

Front 259

After the adoption phase (where you have more contributors) what is the coach to analyst ratio?

Back 259

1 to 50

Front 260

What tool does CSI recommend when selecting coaches?

Back 260

Social Network Analysis (SNA)

Front 261

What is Social Network Analysis (SNA)?

Back 261

It's a tool that CSI recommends when picking a coach. It is a mathematical and visual analysis of relations, flows and influence between people, groups and organizations.

Front 262

How do you measure a Knowledge Domain Expert's success?

Back 262

By their KCS influence on changing time and cost to resolve an incident.

Front 263

What is a knowledge domain?

Back 263

They are a virtual collection of KCS articles about a product family or relating to technology; they are not precise in terms of boundaries.

Front 264

Who should be a KDE?

Back 264

Analyst with enthusiasm for the technology and KCS

Front 265

What are the responsibilities of a KDE?

Back 265

Efficient/effective problem solving; data mining/trend analysis; assist in development/maintenance of kb quality /flow; perform known vs new analysis; develop and analyze reports on key metrics; advocate for changes; influence product/vendor management; participation in KCS council

Front 266

What is the first step in launching KCS adoption?

Back 266

Securing Executive Sponsor.

Front 267

Who should be the executive sponsor for kcs?

Back 267

Someone who has significant influence with other organizations such as HR, product marketing and development

Front 268

What is the KCS Program Managers job?

Back 268

They are the evangelist for KCS practices; they are responsible for coordinating the adoption team and project plan.

Front 269

Who should be the KCS program manager?

Back 269

The person heading up support delivery.

Front 270

Describe the KCS adoption through the phases of adoption?

Back 270

At first, their focus is on change management/design and as you move through the phases it's focused on continuous improvement.

Front 271

What the focus and measurement used for the planning and design phase?

Back 271

Build tools, gather baseline measurements, set realistic internal and external expectations; Measurements Executive sponsor buy in; first draft of project deliverables

Front 272

What the focus and measurement used for the adoption phase?

Back 272

Create internal understanding and excitement through initial competency; establish internal references; measuresments - ration of known to new incidents; link rate, AQI; competency profile (my notes: probably should baseline all the metrics that are claimed to be improved, e.g., MTTR, FCR, etc).

Front 273

What the focus and measurement used for the Proficiency phase?

Back 273

Create and mature the KB; increase process efficiency; reduce time to proficiency; improve collaboration and analyst satisfaction; measurements - cost per incident, resolution capacity; FCR; time to proficiency; time to publish

Front 274

What the focus and measurement used for the Leverage phase?

Back 274

Optimize people's time, reduce support cost, increase customer success; improve employee sat and improve product and services; measurements - support costs as % or revenue; customer loyalty; customer sat, employee sat, employee turnover; self-service use; ratio of known to new incidents; product improvement; cultural health; time to adopt new products/services

Front 275

What's CSI's general opinion about measurements?

Back 275

They matter and each phase has their own measurements.

Front 276

What is the balanced scorecard?

Back 276

A way of measuring. It links individual, department and organizational goals together (so the team sees how they impact everything); looks at performance from multiple points of view (customers, employees and the business); distinguishes leading indicators (activities) and lagging (outcomes) indicators

Front 277

What does CSI say about putting goals on activities?

Back 277

It will create unwanted results (create 10 articles); destroy the value of the indicator; distract people from the real objective; relieve people from using their own judgement; make leadership look dull; disenfranchise people

Front 278

What are some examples of KCS balanced scorecard leading indicators?

Back 278

KCS competencies, participation rate, article trends (create, reuse, modify, rework), article lifecycle health

Front 279

What are some examples KCS balanced scoredcard lagging indicators?

Back 279

Customer sat, Employee sat and business (profit, retention, emp turnover)

Front 280

What is the concept of triangulation?

Back 280

The idea that the creation of value cannot be directly measured or counted - value is intangible. CSI believes the best way to show value is through triangulation.

Front 281

What's CSI's stance on putting goals on leading incidators, e.g., create 10 articles per week?

Back 281

It doesn't work and creates a lot of bad things. Don't do it.

Front 282

What do you get from monitoring KCS article life cycle trend?

Back 282

By watching how quickly things are moving from draft state to approved you get a sense of bottlenecks. You want to see more content go into approved and published state out of draft.

Front 283

Participation rate is a __________ indicator

Back 283

Leading ... it's an activity

Front 284

What's a good participation rate?

Back 284

60 to 80%

Front 285

What has CSI found that motivates people?

Back 285

The first is alignment to a purpose and second a sense of accomplishment and recognition

Front 286

What is a compelling purpose composed of?

Back 286

It's known by all; bigger than the company; brief/clear/concise; elicits an emotional response; value proposition

Front 287

What is a Strategic Framework in CSI terms?

Back 287

A document that links benefits of KCS to the goals of the organization.

Front 288

How does CSI approach Return On Investment (ROI)?

Back 288

In many many ways, e.g., by audience, by phase, qualitatively, quantitatively

Front 289

So, KCS will increase capacity? What does CSI say you should do with that?

Back 289

It depends, but have a plan. Will people simply work more cases or will they do other things. Let analysts know what all this new time will be rewarded with ... layoffs, projects, problem management, product testing, etc.

Front 290

What are the 5 dysfunctions of a team and how does CSI recommend you use them?

Back 290

They are listed team issues and strategies for overcoming them. They recommend this for leadership so you can survey the team and put together a course of action for implementation, e.g., lack of trust - learn each other strengths and weaknesses.

Front 291

What motivates people according to CSI?

Back 291

They've borrowed an article from HBS: "One More Time: How do You Motivate Employees?" Motivation factors include achievement, recognition, the work itself and responsibility

Front 292

What does CSI have to say about reward and recognition programs?

Back 292

They're hard to get right, but here are some guiding principles: use legitimate metrics, align to organizational goals, have time constrains, integrate into job; balance of individual and team rewards; compatibility with people (don't embarrass an introvert); equal opportunity for participation; recognition of diversity of skills; competition with themselves; also, use different types of rewards challenge (set new records), attention (dinner with CEO) and affirmation (new roles, industry conferences); lastly, have an end date, if carried on for to long then it's not a part of people's jobs

Front 293

What does a KCS communication plan include?

Back 293

It's really a marketing plan and includes target audiences, key message, KCS Q&A/FAQ, overcoming objections, elevator pitch, delivery vehicles, programs and activities for engagement and socialization, project plan and timeline

Front 294

How do you handle objections to KCS?

Back 294

Be sensitive to the feelings behind the objection, acknowledge the validity of feeling (empathy), seek to understand the issue from the other's perspective, offer an alternative perspective (turn out ... you would think), use WIIFM to craft a response in their terms

Front 295

What are the lessons learned/critical success factors for implementation?

Back 295

Don't bring over legacy data, don't over engineer workflows and standards, get executive buy in, the coaching role, using the right metrics based on goals, performance assessment should focus on creating value, the attitude about KCS deployment (it's an organizational change and not just a tool)

Front 296

CSI has found that people aren't likely to do things if they don't understand why they are doing them. So how do you make it happen?

Back 296

Coaching and validation of understanding through certification. The solve loop practices have to become a habit for support analyst; not something they occassionaly do, or something only some of them do.

Front 297

What are the two guiding principles of adoption?

Back 297

Go with the flow (let your top issues draw people in) and start small (pilot team) ... create success/excitement and then invite others to join.

Front 298

What does "go with the flow" mean when it comes to adopting KCS?

Back 298

Let the demand for the support drive adoption. Capturing and framing question and problem that are presented to level as a WIP article draws other in the organization into the knowledge bas to add resolutions.

Front 299

How big should start small be (re: adopting KCS)?

Back 299

Depends on the # of analysts. But a 280 group should have between 35 to 40 people in their first wave; the second wave may have 100 with the last being 150.

Front 300

What are the typical events in the KCS adoption?

Back 300

KCS assessment (understanding/sizing the opportunity); Executive briefing and buy-in; Selection of KCS adoption team; Foundations workshop for adoption team; Design session; Management workshop, Wave 1 pilot with training for analyst; technology update; workflow/content standard update; Coach training/certification; Wave 2 for analyst with training; KCS publisher certification; KDE training

Front 301

What activities would you find in the Planning/Designing phase of KCS adoption?

Back 301

KCS assessment, Executive briefing and buy-in; selection of KCS adoption team; Foundatoins workshop for adoption team; design session

Front 302

What activities would you find in the Adopting phase of KCS adoption?

Back 302

Management workshop, Wave 1 pilot with training for analyst; technology update; workflow/content standard update; Coach training/certification; more training

Front 303

What activities would you find in the Proficiency/Learning phase of KCS adoption?

Back 303

Wave 2 for analyst with training; more training

Front 304

What activities would you find in the Leveraging phase of KCS adoption?

Back 304

Wave 3 for analyst with training; KCS publisher certification; KDE training

Front 305

What does CSI identify as critical success factors for adoption success?

Back 305

Gain cross functional buy-in through thoughtful and continuous communications; develop content guidelines and workflows that support a JIT publishing; define and practice the workflow before going shopping for tools; develop measures and baselines value for the expected results; implement training, coaching and cert programs; implement training for 1st and 2nd line managers

Front 306

How long will the planning and design phase take?

Back 306

Anywhere fro a month to several months depending the size and diversity of the audience.

Front 307

What's the purpose the KCS opportunity assessment?

Back 307

It evaluates current processes, content and culture. The evaluator uses the results for improving what the organization does; it's also very helpful for the KCS design. It mainly looks at incident management, problem solving, technology/infrastructure, knowledge management and leadership/culture.

Front 308

In what phase would you perform the KCS opportunity assessment?

Back 308

The planning and design phase

Front 309

Who completes the KCS Opportunity Assessment Survey? Who do they interview?

Back 309

The program manager completes the sectoins for environment, culture, tools and metrics; the data collection is done be an outside evaluator. They'll interview a management team and support analysts.

Front 310

How long does a KCS Opportunity Assessment take?

Back 310

5 days of onsite evaluations, observations, and interviews; if you have multiple locations then it will take longer

Front 311

What should you do to make sure the KCS opportunity assessment has an impact?

Back 311

Spend a half day reviewing the results with the Executive Sponsor, Evaluator and management team; The goal for this meeting is to make sure everyone has an understanding of KCS; how it differs from other practices; and a sizing of the potential benefits and a high level understanding of what needs to be done (what do the people in that room have to do - make this yours)

Front 312

What's the Evaluator role have to do with the KCS opportunity assessment?

Back 312

They are a part of that half day workshop. They're an objective observer exploring opportunities, not a judging party. They should be from the outside and not closely associated with the support organization. You do this to create a safe environment (a leap for me to make ... but ok)

Front 313

If the Executive sponsor decides to move forward with the project after the KCS opportunity assessment is completed ... then what's next?

Back 313

The first step is to identify and confirm the Executive sponsor.

Front 314

What's the role of the Executive Sponsor of KCS?

Back 314

They must have influence on thos who will be impacted by the change. Typically a VP ... Sr. Dir of Service Delivery; an executive whose organization includes Support Analysts. They're an advocate with Finance, HR, and Product Development. They are not on the adoption team, but should get regular updates. They have control of the budget and are accountable for results.

Front 315

What step should you take after you've identified the Executive sponsor?

Back 315

Create a cross functional team adoption team.

Front 316

Who should be on the KCS adoption team?

Back 316

Executive sponsor (conflicting? yes ... could be a typo in adoption guide); Program Manager, IT/Web Liaison, KCS adoption team members

Front 317

What's the role of the Program manager for the adoption team?

Back 317

They're Practices certified and are responsible for coordinating the team and plan.

Front 318

What's the role of the IT and Web Liaison for the adoption team?

Back 318

IT drives the tool functionality, reporting, performance and integration required to support KCS. The web person ensures website protocol is included in the content standard

Front 319

What's the role of the KCS Adoption Team members?

Back 319

They are managers and support analysts representing the team; they're responsible for creating deliverables during the design session and support the pilot adoption. It's a part time gig; they keep doing their day jobs.

Front 320

What level of certification should people on the adoption team get?

Back 320

They should go to the Foundations Workshop and get the Practices cert. Why? CSI says the most successful adoptions invest in training and communication

Front 321

What is the KCS design session? What are its goals?

Back 321

It's a 4 to 5 day workshop with 3 goals? Develop initial documentation for KCS; establish ownership of the documents; align KCS with goals of the organization.

Front 322

What happens after the KCS Design session is done?

Back 322

The first wave of adopters (Pilot Team) will use the new workflow and content standard with existing software tools and provide feedback for improvement before bringing on additional users or changing technology.

Front 323

What are some of the deliverables from the Design Session?

Back 323

A first draft (heavy emphasis on first) of the Strategic Framework, Content Standard, Workflow, Performance Assessment Model, Technology Functional Specifications, Communications Framework, Adoption Strategy and Roadmap

Front 324

What's the purpose of having a Strategic Framework doc?

Back 324

It describes how the benefits of KCS align with or contribute to the company's high-level goals and objectives.

Front 325

What's the purpose of the Content Standard document?

Back 325

It describes the structure or format of an article, the intent of each of the fields, recommendation on writing style, metadata definitions, and the article life cycle and states. It also defines how the AQI will be scored.

Front 326

What's the purpose of the Work-flow document?

Back 326

It describes the solve loop process, which includes integrating the creation and maintenance of knowledge into the problem solving process.

Front 327

What's the purpose of the Performance Assessment Model document?

Back 327

It details the measures for individuals, teams and organizational performance

Front 328

What's the purpose of the Technology Functional Specifications document?

Back 328

It lists the features and integration requirements needed for the tools to support KCS

Front 329

What's the purpose of the Communications Framework document?

Back 329

It identifies the audiences, key messages, FAQs, objections as well as timeline or project plan and mediums for communication activities.

Front 330

What's the purpose of the Adoption Strategy and Road Map document?

Back 330

It identifies the waves of adoption, list of Wave 1 pilot participants, and timeline for engagement of subsequent waves.

Front 331

What should you consider when selecting people to participate in the first pilot wave of adoption?

Back 331

They should be support analysts who work in the same area, they represent all levels of problem solving; represent multiple geographies; the team is open to new an different ideas; management of the team is open to new and different ideas

Front 332

What is the Adoption Planning Matrix?

Back 332

It's a tool you can use in the selection of the pilot team. You can gather a team's personality/history around embracing change. Using this tool makes it much easier to determine.

Front 333

Who does all the draft/activities in the Design session?

Back 333

You split up sub groups; the teams should be on the same page, but product different results. Managers own the communication plan and performance assessment; Analysts own the content standard and workflow.

Front 334

How big should the adoption team working on the Design session be?

Back 334

14 to 18; more than 24 becomes difficult to manage.

Front 335

What are the guiding principles for the KCS Design session?

Back 335

The intent of KCS is to capture collective experience as part of problem solving and make it available to peers and clients; create content in findable and usable for audiences; demand driven (e.g., capture context, don't extrapolate/expand, don't predict future, reuse is review); keep it simple .. this is for the pilot; so, don't let good be the enemy of great

Front 336

What's the Knowledge Domain Experts (KDEs) role?

Back 336

They are responsible for identifying evolve loop content based on articles created in the Solve Loop window, look after health of KB, focus on a collection of documents (e.g., security guy), has technical expertise in domain

Front 337

What's the role of the Coach during the pilot phase?

Back 337

Few options ... you do a peer coaching programs ... great time support analyst to demonstrate good coaching and are candidate; KCS adoption team members are coaching; you get outside coaches

Front 338

What's the first thing you should before you start with the pilot team (i.e., wave 1)?

Back 338

Gather your baseline measurements, e.g., customer sat, employee sat, MTTR, cost, etc.

Front 339

To exit phase 1 (planning/design) what should be done?

Back 339

You have organization commitment (communications sent from leadership, budget, adoption team); strategic framework complete; content standard assessable; AQI available; workflow process tested; performance assessment model define; baseline metrics; communication framework in place (process for feedback); technology functional specs draft; adoption road map completed

Front 340

What's the goal of the adoption phase?

Back 340

To create internal understanding of KCS, encourage excitement through learning, and establish internal referernceability (guides/videos/etc.)?

Front 341

How long does the adoption phase take?

Back 341

Anywhere from 12 weeks to a year

Front 342

Who leads the adoption phase?

Back 342

The KCS Program Manager

Front 343

How do you train analyst in the pilot phase?

Back 343

Conduct a half day training session to teach them the solve loop, structured problem solving; the difference between incident and knowledge management; capturing customer's context; searching and finding (reuse is review); reviewing while reusing and either flagging or updating; creating articles that adhere to content standard; understanding AQI and importance of context of the audience; working independently by creating well-structured Articles; ability to consistently create, modify, or validate articles without review from others

Front 344

What are some suggestions CSI gives for contributor training?

Back 344

Use the live knowledge base; role play customer scenarios; use real incident to practice creating articles; plan for time to socialize the experience

Front 345

When do you hold the Leadership workshop?

Back 345

During the adoption phase

Front 346

What's the point of the Leadership workshop?

Back 346

It's intended for 1st and 2nd line manager in team's adopting KCS. It's about switching from old management style to a new one that enables KCS behaviors. Use the workshop to review reports and make sense of leading and lagging indicators; radar charts; etc.

Front 347

When do you hold the Coach development program?

Back 347

In the adoption phase

Front 348

What's the point of the Coach development program?

Back 348

Coaching is the most important role in the deployment and is clear sign of whether the project will succeed or fail. Help them interpret AQI and give feedback.

Front 349

What are the responsibilities of the Coach role?

Back 349

Act as a change agent by promoting WIIFM and So What?; Promote understanding and adherence to the content standard, solve loop workflow; assess quality of articles (AQI); provide feedback to analyst and management; meet regularly with analysts; attend coach meetings; provide input to KCS Council

Front 350

When should you start training coaches?

Back 350

As the pilot draws to a close

Front 351

Who should be coaches?

Back 351

People who are respected and trusted by their peers, and who are interested in helping others be successful with KCS. SNA is a good tool to get coaches.

Front 352

How much time does a coach need to give?

Back 352

During phase 2 (adoption) about 50%; so, they can still do their day job.

Front 353

When do you do the Technology Update (also what is it)?

Back 353

At the end of the piolt the adoption team looks at incident and knowledge management and draft a list of requirements.

Front 354

What's the exit criteria for the adoption phase?

Back 354

KCS training and coaching successful (80 to 90% of analyst or certified contributors); KB is being used 65 to 85% of time; articles are being created and reused; technology functional specs implemented; AQI adhered to (the average is eql to the target)

Front 355

What's a good range for the KB to be used?

Back 355

About 65 to 85% of the time. It usually levels off here and it's enough to sustain the methodology.

Front 356

What are you doing in the Proficiency phase?

Back 356

Monitoring performance; continuing coaching and learning; reinforcing the new behaviors; developing evolve loop content ... overall, we expect to see improvement agaisnt the baseline measure, e.g., MTTR

Front 357

What happens to the KCS adoption team as the 2nd wave of deployment wraps up?

Back 357

It evolves into the KCS council

Front 358

What is the KCS Council's responsibility?

Back 358

To drive continuous improvement in the KCS program. They do article sampling and scoring; provide positive and constructive feedback to the individuals and teams in the organization.

Front 359

What's the exit criteria for phase 3 Leveraging?

Back 359

Target performance metrics are consistently reinforced (e.g., FCR improved, participation rate good, AQI, etc.)

Front 360

What risk do you run in the leveraging phase with analyst?

Back 360

They could stop using the process; now is the time to realize their WIIFMs, e.g., fix/remove problems and publish frequently used articles to the web for self service

Front 361

In what phase does the customer realize the benefits of KCS?

Back 361

Phase 4: Leveraging

Front 362

What are you doing in the Leveraging phase?

Back 362

Trend analysis (KDE); self service for customer; improving product for customer; new vs known processes; modifying performance measure from individual to team; also, you're rethinking support measures because now you have interaction/use from the customers (sorry, nothing else from CSI adoption guide)

Front 363

When do you do the Knowledge Domain Expert workshop?

Back 363

In the leveraging phase

Front 364

What is the Knowledge Domain Expert workshop?

Back 364

This workshop develops their skills; they're responsible for an area; so, they need to learn to analyze it for improvements and gaps.

Front 365

What phase do you start the new vs known (an evolve loop practice) analysis?

Back 365

In the leveraging phase

Front 366

What's the exit criteria for the leveraging phase?

Back 366

Articles available for self service; self service success; work shifted from known to new; incident volume decreased; problems being removed from the product or request enhancements; time to adopt new/enhanced products; support cost as a % of revenue has decreased; customer sat and loyalty increase; employee sat increased

Front 367

What's the 85/85 rule?

Back 367

At least 85% of the time customers are using self service first and at least 85% of the time they are finding what they need

Front 368

What are the most common points of failure in KCS adoptions?

Back 368

Lack of line management ownership, ineffective coaching, not having the support analysts design the workflow and content standard; not changing the metrics as we move from phase 2 to phase 3 (can't measure the value and health of support from inside of it ... it has to go from transaction based to value based)

Front 369

What should you measure in phase 1 (planning and desigining), i.e., what are you baselining?

Back 369

Metrics around customer, employee, financial and process; also, consider measuring the culture with the 5 dysfunctions of a team survey.

Front 370

What could the 5 dysfunctions survey in the baseline discover?

Back 370

The team's cynicism about the project; maybe there have been multiple knowledge engineering projects. So, we'll find out if we need to confirm engagement, follow through, etc.

Front 371

What will it cost to implement KCS?

Back 371

The general rule is the tool will cost 1500 to 2500 per person; and a similar amount for the program itself.

Front 372

What are the phase 1 planning and designing costs?

Back 372

Project and program management (evaluator); KCS foundations and design workshops

Front 373

What are the phase 2 adoption costs?

Back 373

Project and program management; KCS training; marketing costs

Front 374

What are the phase 3 proficiency costs?

Back 374

Tools and integration; coaching time; marketing costs to support communications plan

Front 375

What are the phase 4 leveraging costs?

Back 375

Tools and integration for self service and marketing costs to support self service to customers

Front 376

What are the 5 critical elements of a successful web portal? And what does KCS address

Back 376

Context (finadability/usability), Completeness (most of what we know is available), timeliness (what we know is available quickly), portal design, marketing (need to encourage customers) ... KCS addresses 1 to 3.

Front 377

What happens to traditional metrics in phase 4 (Leveraging)?

Back 377

They start going the wrong way. MTTR increases, FCR godes down, cost per incident goes up ... why? B/c clients are solving their issues online and are coming to us with harder issues. This is a sign that self service is successful

Front 378

What happens to the measure of ticket/cases/calls/incidents a team is handling in phase 4 (leveraging)?

Back 378

It's not as important ... whoa! What? It's a big shift in thinking. KCS is transformational; measure call deflection, time to publish, self service use, self service success

Front 379

What is the measure self service use and self service success?

Back 379

Use is % of customers who use the portal before opening an incident; Success is % of customer who find what they need

Front 380

How do you calculate call deflection?

Back 380

Not easily ... here are some suggestions: The pages should ask them if this solved their issue + interview customers; analytics showing people moved between pages implying that the page did not solve their question (click stream analysis - looking at if they opened a ticket afterwards);

Front 381

What is the ratio of support costs to revenue?

Back 381

It's a measurement. Picture a line graph with three lines going left to right. The top line is revenue. The middle line is expected support costs (without KCS). The bottom line is realized support cost with KCS. That's the savings and it ends up being a ratio. The lower the ratio ... the bigger the profit. Add in customer and employee sat and execs love this.

Front 382

What is the 30/70 rule?

Back 382

The work in support goes to 30% of what comes in into support is known and 70% is new. This delivers on a promise of new and challenging work.