Statement of Best Practice
Knowledge Management (KM) is the deliberate and consistent practice of identifying, organizing, storing, and disseminating information at all lifecycle stages within an organization. Knowledge Management strategy identifies the types of relevant information to target and process. Miami University IT Services (MUIT) focuses primarily on operational and user Knowledge and produces types of documentation that include error messages, external (public) documents, internal documents, and reference documents. The vast majority of these documents are stored and shared externally and internally through the TeamDynamix Knowledge Base (KB), the primary Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS) repository. The Data Cookbook contains a data dictionary, which holds documentation for Business Intelligence and University Data Governance. A small number of Knowledge documents are stored in GitLab and the wiki for internal use and historical reference. Physical and logical data flow diagrams are stored in the TeamDynamix Asset record. (Documents stored in employee and group folders in Google Drive are considered to be out of scope.)
Knowledge Management standards refer to the set of guidelines, processes, requirements, and specifications established and followed by an organization to ensure consistent quality in external- and internal-use Knowledge documentation. Knowledge of and adherence to these standards helps MUIT reduce operational ambiguity, provide repeatable processes and procedures, and improve the user experience.
Knowledge Management incorporates the use of the Asset record to assign ownership of each Knowledge document: The owner of an asset also owns the documentation for the asset. The assignment of accountable ownership is intended to ensure the maintenance and currency of documentation for the lifecycle of an asset.
Contact
- Knowledge Coordinator, Knowledge Management Practice Owner
Reason for Best Practice
- To inform stakeholders of the current extent of documentation within MUIT's Knowledge Management practice
Entities Affected by Best Practice
- Knowledge Coordinator
- Knowledge Contributors
- Knowledge Base Stakeholders
Best Practice
Documentation should be stored and shared in the TeamDynamix Knowledge Base as the primary SKMS repository. Other tools may be used when the documentation fits the defined use case for those tools.
External Documentation: TeamDynamix Knowledge Base
- The following standard articles are available for external or public viewing in the Knowledge Base:
- User instruction articles
- Service request articles
- User guide articles
- Directory articles
- Error message articles
- Policy articles
- Best Practice articles
Internal Documentation: TeamDynamix Knowledge Base
- The following standard articles are available for internal viewing in the Knowledge Base:
- Procedure articles: standard operating procedures, maintenance procedures, technical procedures
- Fulfillment articles
- Support guide articles
- Escalation articles
- Technical support articles
- Policy and best practice articles
- Runbook articles
Internal Documentation: Google Drive folder, Application-System Representations
Internal Documentation: Data Cookbook
- The following articles are available for internal viewing in the Data Cookbook:
Internal Documentation: GitLab
- The following articles are available for internal viewing in GitLab:
- Developer documentation
- README files
Internal Documentation: Wiki
- The following articles are available for internal viewing in the wiki:
- Support documentation (archived or historical reference)
- Banner tables
- Network infrastructure documentation
Internal Documentation: TeamDynamix Asset record
- The following documents are available for internal viewing in the Asset record of each product:
- Physical data flow diagrams
- Logical data flow diagrams
Related Documents