An Introduction to ITIL Knowledge Management

Assume your company has executed a software upgrade, which results in an error on your desktop or laptop whenever you perform a specific operation.  You follow the proper procedure of bringing the error to the notice of the person in charge that is calling your IT support department for assistance.  After waiting, discussion, escalation, some troubleshooting, your service desk identifies a workaround that is satisfactory for the time being, and you may return to work.

Was this the story's happy ending?  On one side, your IT service desk was able to understand your issue and helped until you received the information you required to resolve the issue. While the problem has been fixed for you, it may still affect your coworkers, who may also receive this error. Will they all have to approach IT and undergo the same procedure you did?

Your interaction with the IT service desk resulted in knowledge for your company. Your coworkers can gain from your interactions in recent situations if the correct procedures are in place to record that information and can put it into use later, avoiding redundant tasks and saving time. For this two "tools" of ITIL knowledge management are particularly important, according to ITIL 2011. The first is the data, info, knowledge, and wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy, which converts data created by IT operations into information, then knowledge, and lastly, wisdom and insights that an IT company may utilize to make better decisions. The second one is the Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS), which is a suite of software sub

systems that collaborate to do data analysis in compliance with the DIKW hierarchy.

Organizations all around the world utilize the ITIL Knowledge Management process to gather organizational knowledge, make it more accessible to users and minimize redundancies in the path of the knowledge-finding process to increase efficiency. This second benefit is easily evident in the preceding example—the IT organization should enter the reported issue in the “known error” in the database of the Knowledge Management system of the company together with information about the solution that was developed. If the company fixes the problem again in the future, the entry should be updated to incorporate the latest information on the software fault and how to fix it. This prevents the IT department from wasting time debugging the same mistake for several people when a fix had already been found!

ITIL knowledge management is the deliberate process of making, managing, maintaining, and the ability to share knowledge and expertise within an organization. The paramount goal is to improve performance and data retention within the company. It is usually referred to as training and development for consumers. It entails establishing, disseminating, and monitoring data to minimize the efficacy of an organization's publicly available information.

ITIL knowledge management best practices were initially introduced as a part of ITIL V3. This model identifies the responsibilities and accountability that a knowledge manager bear. ITIL Knowledge Managers are granted complete power to apply ITIL 4 requirements. There are a lot of ITIL knowledge management roles and responsibilities along with ITIL V4 knowledge management processes.

Knowledge Management is classified as an ITSM subprocessor in 2011. This approach takes input from all phases and creates data that may be used throughout the ITIL knowledge management life cycle.

This article will thoroughly explain ITIL Knowledge Management, how efficiently ITIL Knowledge Management can safeguard your firm's intellectual capital while boosting efficiency. We'll also cover the types of ITIL Knowledge Management System, and the key processes and activities associated with ITIL Knowledge Management. As per ITIL Knowledge Manager Job description we believe one has an upperhand with ITIL Training Course hence you should enroll in one.

What is Knowledge Management in ITIL?

The process of obtaining, assessing, storing, and distributing knowledge developed inside an IT service desk is known as knowledge management. It is intended to help service desk teams make the appropriate decisions throughout their service life cycle and incident resolution process by regulating and managing the flow of information efficiently. 

ITIL knowledge management process flow is defined in ITIL® 4 as one of the primary processes responsible for supplying knowledge to all the IT service management (ITSM) operation executives. ITIL 4 establishes the basis for integrating knowledge management with the other ITSM framework's procedures or ITIL knowledge management framework procedures. 

Consider incident and issue management, for example. It is inextricably linked with incident and issue management methods since it controls the solutions and known mistakes databases, which plays an important part in resolving raised tickets. 

The cornerstone of a knowledge management practice is a knowledge base. A knowledge base is a self-service online repository of information on a product, service, software, department, or a topic in information technology. The information in your knowledge base might originate from anyone, but it generally comes from those contributors who are subject matter experts. FAQs, troubleshooting tips, and any other information you may need or desire to know may be found in the knowledge base. 

We've all grown accustomed to relying on search engines, which make knowledge management appear simple. They use a broad, globally networked information source (aka the internet). You type a topic and receive the information you require. 

Knowledge management may be a challenging task for IT teams, but the benefits are well worth the effort. 

What Are the Types of ITIL Knowledge Management?

 Information management is a continuous cycle of taking tacit or intuitive or hidden knowledge and making it available in the explicit knowledge form. That seems confusing, so let's back up and examine the three categories of information that exist. 

1. Tacit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge is information derived from personal experience, context, or practice. This form of knowledge is lodged in your mind, making it difficult to discuss with others. Because tacit knowledge is like speaking another language, it is based on a person's own experience and intuition, thus it is both a key competitive advantage and a huge difficulty when adopting knowledge management systems. 

2. Explicit Knowledge

Codified info, or knowledge that is easily available due to its availability in the ITIL knowledge management process document, is explicit. Explicit knowledge is considerably easier to store and access in a knowledge management system due to its simplicity. The difficulty is ensuring that it gets reviewed and updated. 

3. Implicit Knowledge

Processes, procedures, and corporate culture all include implicit knowledge. It may exist in a codified form, such as a handbook or written rules, but the knowledge is not explicit. Instead, it is frequently seen in the way an organization operates. 

Understanding these three forms of information provides a better starting point for understanding how knowledge inside your organization should be handled. When done correctly, it may assist in creating value, stimulating creativity, and making achieving goals simpler.

What Are the Key Processes of ITIL Knowledge Management?

1. ITIL v4 knowledge management Processes

Earlier editions of ITIL described sets of procedures; however, ITIL 4 identifies currently 34 'practices.' This allows enterprises more leeway in designing custom ITIL procedures to meet their individual needs.

The 5 ITIL phases and 26 ITIL V3 procedures were not rendered obsolete by the release of ITIL 4, and they are still extensively utilized. 

However, the introduction of ITIL 4, with its strong preference for decreased complexity and simple yet practical solutions, presents a chance for a new beginning with leaner, easier-to-use ITIL knowledge management procedures. 

2. ITIL Processes in accordance with ITIL V3

ITIL V3 (ITIL 2011) focuses ITIL procedures around the five stages of the service lifecycle: strategy, design, transition, operation, and continuous service improvement. Each of the five stages focuses on a different aspect of the service lifecycle: 

• Service Strategy  

Process Goal: To choose a strategy for serving consumers. The Service Strategy process begins with an assessment of customer demands and the market environment, it defines which services the IT organization will offer and what skills must be created. Its ultimate purpose is to train the IT department to think and act strategically. 

• Service Design 

The goal of the Service Design Process is to create new IT services. The process includes the creation of new services as well as adjustments and enhancements to current ones. 

• Service Transition 

The goal of the Service Transition Process is to create and deploy IT services. Service Transition also ensures that service modifications and Service Management activities are carried out in a systematic fashion. 

• Service Operation Process Goal 

To ensure that IT services are provided in an effective and efficient manner. Fulfilling customer requests, addressing service issues, troubleshooting, and normal maintenance are all part of the Service Operation process. 

• CSI stands for Continuous Service Improvement 

Process Goal: Apply quality management methodologies to learn from past triumphs and mistakes. The Continual Service Improvement process strives to continuously enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of IT processes and services in accordance with the ISO 20000 concept of continuous improvement. 

3. ITIL Processes based on ITIL Version 2 (ITIL V2)

In contrast to ITIL V3, IT Service Management in ITIL version 2 was not structured around the service lifecycle. ITIL V2 introduced two new "disciplines": 

• Service Assistance 

Service Support covers all operational processes required for the handling of service outages and the execution of changes, ensuring the availability of IT Services. 

• Service Provision 

Service Delivery guarantees that there are binding rules in place for the operational processes. It governs the planning, contractual, and financial issues

What Are the Core Activities of Knowledge Management?

There are three primary aspects of Knowledge Management that must be addressed for the system to function well and for the system to provide genuine advantages. These ITIL knowledge management activities are:

1. Creating Knowledge

Creating knowledge refers to the development of new knowledge from data, information, or prior knowledge. Knowledge may be created either from gathering new knowledge, codifying knowledge, or merging new and old knowledge. 

2. Storing Information

Organizations generate knowledge, but they also forget. Knowledge may be considered as a thing to be saved for future use; hence it must be saved.

Any informational piece or knowledge that contributes to an organization's performance might (and perhaps should) be preserved in corporate memory. This includes product expertise, manufacturing processes, customers, marketing tactics, financial outcomes, strategic objectives, goals, and so on. 

3. Knowledge Exchange

This stage between information acquisition and knowledge utilization is one of the three core tasks of knowledge management. Each step may occur concurrently to assist the others.

To begin, knowledge sharing entails effective transmission of knowledge so that the receiver understands it sufficiently to act on it. Second, knowledge is provided rather than suggestions based on knowledge. Third, information sharing can occur between people as well as between groups, departments, or organizations. Sharing information helps individuals, groups, departments, or organizations to spread their skills, expertise, and knowledge. Shared information improves learning and allows people to be more sensitive to environmental change while spending less money. 

4. Making Use of Information

Utilizing knowledge is the real use of knowledge to change strategic direction, solve new challenges, and increase efficiency. 

Using knowledge, learning is incorporated into the organization. Whatever is widely available throughout the organization may be generalized and adapted to new situations, at least in part. The expert system scenario that assists a rookie technical support worker who handles technical support calls at Microsoft's help desk is a nice illustration of simultaneous sharing and use. 

As a result, a knowledge-driven organization must use knowledge effectively and efficiently to adapt to changes in the environment to maintain a competitive advantage. Organizations gain from increased innovation capability and competitiveness as a result. Furthermore, because increased ICT use leads to lower ICT application costs, it is a source of CA. As a result, knowledge, like any other asset, must be used effectively. It is not important to enroll in a regular knowledge management class as you can opt ITSM Certification Online with any great resource such as KnowledgeHut.

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Conclusion

ITIL knowledge management has something for everyone. Whatever your industry or market is, everyone in your firm has significant expertise that needs to be shared. This is true across all departments IT, customer service, HR, legal, including marketing and finance, all have knowledge that has to be shared with a team or a whole business regularly. Workers from various disciplines and departments may use your company's knowledge base to solve problems and avoid future ones if you have a strategy in place. KnowledgeHut ITIL Training Course can help you improve knowledge management.