MITRE KM Study

© 2014 The MITRE Corporation..

Knowledge Management: A Benchmark Study of Contemporary Practices

S e p t e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 1 4

F r a n k L i n t o n , E d . D .

M a r c i e Z a h a r e e , P h . D .

M a r i l yn K u p e t z

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MITRE

Supports a broad and diverse set of sponsors within the U.S. government, as well as internationally

1958 2014

MITRE is a private, independent, not-for-profit organization, chartered to work in the public interest

Founded in 1958 to provide engineering and technical services to the U.S. Air Force

Currently manages Federally Funded Research and Development Centers for the:

Department of Defense

Federal Aviation Administration

Internal Revenue Service/ Department of Veterans Affairs

Department of Homeland Security

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts

Department of Health and Human Services

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Outline

Background

– Why we performed this study

– Who we studied

– How we studied them: interview & survey

What we found

– The organizations we spoke with or surveyed

– Survey highlights

– Interview highlights

© 2013 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. For internal MITRE use

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Benchmarking

The continuous process of comparing

and measuring your organization

against others, anywhere in the world,

to gain information on philosophies,

practices, and measures that will help

an organization take action to improve

its performance

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This is what our customer wanted to know

What does a successful KM office look like?

Do larger offices use more best practices?

Does the location within the organization matter?

What is the effect of budget?

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How we went about answering his questions

Developed a survey by reviewing KM

literature, compiling questions, piloting the

instrument within MITRE

Arranged, conducted, and documented a

series of 9 interviews

Recruited respondents from KM contacts,

KM organizations, & websites

Analyzed results using SurveyPro & Excel

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Example Survey Questions

Thank you for taking the time to respond to this survey.

This survey is being conducted for the Knowledge

Management Office (KMO) of one of MITRE’s customers.

Your thoughtful responses will help the KMO reorganize to

become a more efficient and effective organization.

While your responses will be kept confidential, all

respondents will receive a copy of the aggregated results.

KM Questionnaire

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Findings: The Organizations

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Responding Organizations

Respondents: 21

Type:

Commercial: 9

Government: 8

Other: 4

Budget for KM

Mostly for labor/staff: 1%

KM Governance:

Federated: 8

Local: 6

Centralized: 5

Other: 2

KM office reports to:

Chief Technology Officer: 4

Chief of Strategy: 4

Chief Information Officer: 2

Head of Organization Dev: 1

Various others: 7

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Findings: Highlights from the Survey

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KM Practices

KM Maturity Model

Do not use: 14

Use APQC model: 5

Use own model: 1

KM Training

On one’s own: 19

Conferences & workshops: 13

KM Community of Practice: 7

Internal training: 5

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KM Evaluation

Measure knowledge assets using

Nothing: 9

Scorecards: 8

Direct intellectual capital: 0

Market capitalization: 0

Measure KM organizational processes using

Nothing: 9

APQC KM assessment tool: 4

Other: 7

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KM Evaluation

Measure KM business outcomes using

Improvement in customer satisfaction: 12

Reduction in cycle time: 10

Cost savings: 9

Technological innovation: 6

Profit generated: 3

Other (business outcome, user satisfaction,

customer report card, pre/ post measures) 8

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KM Activities that Organizations Reported

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To what extent does your organization

support a knowledge sharing culture?

Our KM program is aligned with our organizations

strategic goals 16

Our organizational culture supports the sharing

and use of knowledge 15

Our organization has a clear vision

and purpose for KM 13

Our KM program has strong top management

support 12

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13 . Whic h of the se knowle dge ma na ge me nt pra c tic e s doe s

your orga niza tion use ? P le a se c he c k a ll tha t a pply.

Counts Percents Percents

0 100

Our organization has a library (either physical or virtual) 17 81%

Our organization has processes in place for knowledge transfer 16 76%

Our organization supports Communities of Practice 15 71%

Our organization formally supports mentoring and coaching activities 14 67%

Our organization has an onboarding plan for incoming personnel 14 67%

Our organization defines and measures competencies 12 57%

Our organization has a process to determine and transfer best practices 12 57%

Our organization hosts knowledge exchange meetings 12 57%

Our organization has standard quality processes in place 11 52%

Our organization practices after- action reviews 11 52%

Our organization formally recognizes and rewards collaboration,

knowledge sharing, etc.10 48%

Our organization employs retirees for knowledge transfer 9 43%

Our organization has a knowledge retention program 9 43%

Our organization explic itly calls out knowledge management activities on

employee development plans8 38%

Our organization hosts storytelling events 7 33%

Which of these KM practices does your

organization use?

Our organization has a library (either physical or virtual) 21

Our organization has processes in place for knowledge

transfer 16

Our organization supports communities of practice 15

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MITRE would describe KM success as increasingly:

Benchmarking oneself against a KM maturity model

Evaluating KM outcomes

Obtaining organizational support for KM

Providing KM training

Performing specific KM activities

Providing KM tools

Employing KM practices

We found no correlation between:

Size of KM office and use of best practices

Location of KM office in the organization and use of best practices

Budget of KM office and use of best practices

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Findings: Highlights from the Interviews

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Purpose

Understand how companies that specialize in

intellectual products implement KM

Discover which best practices thrive in the

KM domain

Capture metrics used to measure efficiency

and value

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Interview Methodology

Planning

Identify what to benchmark

Identify comparable companies

Determine data collection method

Data Collection

Collect data

Data Analysis

Sort and compile data for comparison

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29

17

10 9 9 8 7 6 6 5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

KM Benchmark Top 10 Interview Themes

Other: 23

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Forrester Reference Model Building the IT Infrastructure and Operations Balanced Scorecard

© 2014 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.

Dines, R, Hubbert, E. (2009) Building The IT Infrastructure And Operations Balanced Scorecard

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© 2013 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. For internal MITRE use

Value Perspective

Are dashboards used by senior

management?

What types of KM programs/initiatives

do organizations invest in?

Does a change of leadership have an

impact on an organization’s KM

strategy?

Is KM linked to other business units?

User Perspective

How do organizations monitor internal

and external sharing and usage?

How are KM/IT services marketed within

organizations?

What is the value of KM? How is it

communicated? How is it perceived?

What types of KM metrics and

measurements are captured and

reported?

Operational Excellence Perspective

How do organizations capture and share

lessons learned?

How do organizations roll out and adopt

KM/IT programs?

How do organizations prepare users for

change?

What types of KM/IT services are

provided within organizations?

How do organizations measure business

performance on KM tools?

Future Orientation Perspective

How long does it take new employees to

become productive?

What type of training is provided to staff?

How does staff acquire KM-related skills?

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The Value Perspective

Senior staff’s vision of KM initiatives varies greatly

© 2013 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved. For internal MITRE use

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ello_there/3021851454/sizes/m/in/photostream/

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Maintaining a positive perception of KM is

challenging

Taxonomies may improve search but are

manpower intensive

The User Orientation Perspective

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Operational Excellence Perspectives

Include a Communication SME as

part of a roll-out team

Consider rebranding vs. rebuying

Customer loyalty requires best-in-

class data

Adoption requires many key

ingredients

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Establish formal communities of practice

Align KM within an organization

Make KM an integral part of the

knowledge flow of an organization

Operational Excellence Perspectives

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Onboarding program

Collaboration and knowledge sharing

A hybrid of KM and domain specific

skill sets

Ask new employees why

Future Orientation Perspective

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Culture and Metrics

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What draws people to share matches the

company’s core values as well as the look

and feel of other organizational processes

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Activity metrics Operational metrics

Behavior metrics Outcome metrics

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Strategic focus drives success

Align KM with organizational values

Knowledge sharing works better with

incentives

Common processes assist productivity

Metrics are particular

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KM is a journey, not a destination

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© 2014 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved.

Frank Linton, Ed.D.

[email protected]

703-983-6728

Marcie Zaharee, Ph.D.

[email protected]

781-271-3345

Marilyn Kupetz

[email protected]

703-983-1733