Ultimate Knowledge Management (KM) Resources List

I spent over a year heading up a Knowledge Management department and in that time built up a list of some of the best KM resources on the web, which over the past few years I've referenced and shared with people numerous times at work.

This article groups the links into the following topic categories:

• Knowledge Management Overviews
• General KM sites and articles
• KM Quick Wins
• KM Business Cases
• Knowledge Audits
• KM Strategy
• Creating a Knowledge Sharing Culture
• Operational and Continuously Improving KM
• KM Books Lists
• KM Books
• KM White Papers and Research
• KM training courses and certifications

Knowledge Management Overviews

Most of the following are PDF files that provide an excellent overview of KM approaches and techniques. Most of them provide useful diagrams and commentary around these techniques too.

• Knowledge sharing in the new KM
• APQC KM "Road Map to Results" (one page poster)
• ABC of Knowledge Management
• HDI KM Approach
• Knowledge Management Review 2004
• An Illustrated Guide to KM
• KM Maturity Model (reference model for assessment)
• Implementing KM
• Process-based approach
• "Pragmatic approaches" article
• Know-Net.Org KM Methodology

General KM sites and articles

A few general KM sites and articles, including lists of tools and overview articles. David Gurteen's website provides a range of resources and is regularly updated with news on his travels. His monthly email newsletter often contains some interesting articles and links.

• http://www.lopn.net/60_Tools.html
• KM on Wikipedia
• KM on Gurteen.com
• Various links to KM sites and articles
• KM 0.0?

KM Quick Wins

Articles and essays on "guerrilla" KM tactics, driving quick wins with low funds or as a way to generate early support for a KM programme.

• No-Budget / Low-Budget KM List
• Knowledge Management: Finding Quick Wins and Long Term Value
• Dave Pollard's "KM quick wins" against my "organizational cultures not conducive to knowledge-sharing"

KM Business Cases

Various articles on KM benefits and building KM business cases.

• Evaluating the Benefits of KM (Kingsley Martin, Modern Practice, April 2003)
• *IMPaKT: A Framework for Linking Knowledge Management to Business Performance
• Business Case for Knowledge Management in Construction
• "Making the Business Case" (doconsite.co.uk, Managing Information and Documents)

Knowledge Audits

Approaches and structures for identifying existing knowledge assets and assessing the "maturity" of an organisation's KM capabilities.

• An introduction to knowledge audits
• Enterprise-wide knowledge audit conducted for a professional services firm (Diane Beryl Schwikkard, 2002)
• Knowledge Management Issues and Practices: A Case Study of a Professional Services Firm (2004)

KM Strategy

Different KM strategy types and how to develop KM strategies.

• Developing a KM strategy
• Choosing Your Knowledge Management Strategy
• NASA's KM Strategy
• KM: "strategies for success"
• Collaborative Secure KM
• Process and Knowledge Management: A Question of Balance

Developing a Knowledge Sharing Culture

Often the trickiest part of any knowledge management initiative, the culture of an organisation is critical to knowledge sharing.

• Creating a knowledge sharing culture
• The 3Cs of Knowledge Sharing: Culture, Co-operation and Commitment
• Corporate Culture and KM
• "Your Say": Creating a knowledge sharing culture

Operational and Continuously Improving KM

Running KM processes operationally is very different to the up-front transformational effort required to put in place the foundations for KM. A lot of this is covered in some of the above overview articles, and the following cover some specific topics in this space.

• Just-In-Time KM
• Operational Knowledge Management: a way to manage competence
• Article on successful KM in a Professional Services company

KM Books Lists

• Wikispaces KM books list
• KnowledgeBoard.com KM books list

KM Books

Some of the absolute classics (the Amazon reviews speak for themselves):

• The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge
• Learning to Fly by Chris Collison and Geoff Parcell
• Communities of Practice by Etienne Wenger
• The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid (Harvard)
• The Knowledge-creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation by Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi (Oxford)
• Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management (Harvard Business Review) - an excellent primer containing seminal essays
• The Reflective Practitioner by Donald A. Schon

KM White Papers and Research

A few more academic papers and articles:

• List of papers and case studies
• Knowledge Management on Google Scolar
• Insights from KPMG's European Knowledge Management Survey 2002/2003 (Results January 2003)

KM training courses and certifications

There are various KM training courses and certifications out there. Here are a few of the most well known ones:

• KMCI KM Certification
• KM Institute
• eKnowledge Center (includes Certification programme)
• ASLIB Training: Public Courses