Notwithstanding, BSI continued to publish KM guidance material:
l April 2003 – PD 7500 Knowledge Management Vocabulary
l May 2003 – PD 7501 Managing Culture and Knowledge – a guide to good practice
l July 2003 – PD 7502 Measurements in Knowledge Management.
Following on, European Standards (CEN Workshop) Agreements published a European Guide to Good Practice in Knowledge Management in 2004.
So what has changed? Despite frequent predictions of its demise, the discipline of KM (or whatever guise it appears in) is now a tactical/operational role in many organisations. Take a glance at the countless adverts for knowledge managers to see what we mean. KM has grown in maturity, and can now be considered to be almost a quarter of a century old, so meets the criteria BSI applied for having a standard. Today we await formal publication of ISO KM Systems Standard 30401, individually approved by the national standards committees and the ISO Work- ing Group that oversaw its development. Indeed it may well have “hit the stands” by the time you read this.
BSI will organise a public webinar on 8 October (2-3pm) to introduce the BS ISO 30401 Knowledge Management Stand- ard. The webinar will provide an oppor- tunity for participants to understand why an international principles-led BS ISO Standard for Knowledge Manage- ment is important, an introduction to the BS ISO 30401 Knowledge Management Standard Requirements and an explana- tion of the next steps in the implemen- tation of the BS ISO 30401 Knowledge Management Standard.
Development of the standard Work started in 2015 and was conducted by an ISO steering committee supported by eight national mirror committees including the UK, which contributed significantly to the initial draft. A draft was made available for public
review for a six-week period during December 2017 and January 2018. Hundreds of comments were received and the UK BSI committee went through each one (including those of CILIP’s K&IM SIG), identifying 270 sugges- tions to be referred back to the ISO committee. These were combined with comments from 15 constituent countries, including eight national mirror bodies. This means that the final standard not only reflects UK contributions but those of other countries.
About the new standard
The new KM Standard will not try to tell you how to do KM, but it does help you
September 2018
BSI’s three levels of standardisation: as an area grows in maturity, the docu- ments produced will tend to move up the pyramid, reflecting greater consensus.
s
Full standards (BS)
High consensus
Published documents (PD) Lower consensus
Publicity available specifications (PAS)
ensure you have set up a good management system, providing a solid foundation on which to build your KM solution. The standard is flexible. It is applicable to large and small organisations. It sets out principles for guidance. This standard does not mandate how you implement KM. It describes requirements for the final product but not how you get there. It’s an attempt to ensure that KM is managed with a degree of consistency. It is an aid for self-audit.
What does the standard cover? l It starts with an outline of the purpose of the standard, explaining why KM is im- portant. It provides guiding principles and outlines the boundaries of KM.
l Section 3 defines knowledge and also knowledge management
l Section 4 covers the KM system, under- standing the organisation and its context and how KM supports this; understanding the needs of stakeholders. It outlines the KM system: the knowledge development/ life cycle; enablers (roles, processes, technologies, governance and culture)
BSI KIM Standards Committee
Both Paul and Karen are members of the British Standards Institute KM Standards committee that worked on the develop- ment of the ISO KM Standard due to be published Q3 18.
Paul Corney joined the BSI KM standards committee in 2015 and drew on global KM experience as practitioner, consultant and author. Paul believes the publication of the ISO KM Standard provides a frame- work against which KM Programs can be viewed. Combined with an independent- ly-assessed external accreditation, it is a key component of the KM practitioner’s path to corporate legitimacy. Karen McFarlane joined the BSI KM standards committee in 2016, repre- senting CILIP. Karen was keen as a KM lead practitioner to ensure that the KM practices and procedures that she used in her everyday work were reflected in the standard and that it was not too theoreti- cal. Karen has found working with the BSI and ISO standards process to be a real learning experience. Read more about business standards at:
https://bit.ly/2wvwMiZ.
l Section 5 covers leadership and governance
l Section 6 covers planning and actions to address risks and opportunities
l There are three annexes on: the knowl- edge spectrum; boundaries between KM and adjacent disciplines; and KM culture.
Benefits of the standard l It provides a benchmark for your KM
management system and a guide to those organisations that are new to KM to help them avoid common pitfalls.
l It gives knowledge managers leverage in their organisations.
l It gives KM legitimacy as a profession. Impact
In order to assess the impact it is worth providing context. Many KM programs benefit from thinking of an image. Here’s one that might help: the standard is like a new kitchen without the utensils, the crock- ery, cookbook; it’s down to those who use it to determine how it will work for them. We hope that it provides a globally- accepted framework of what should be in a KM programme and how it should be supported and assessed. We are looking forward to it being drawn on by organisa- tions that value KM.
Who will benefit?
At the time of general release of the draft for comment in Q4 17, a question that arose was: “Who is going to benefit?” Undoubtedly consultants will develop offerings that purport to help organisa- tions to prepare for an ISO KM Standards Audit. If that helps to raise standards then surely that’s a positive. However, we see the real beneficiary being KM practition- ers, current and future in those organisa- tions such as the public sector for which ISO Standards are a core component of their quality measurements. IP
This article represents the personal opinions of the authors.
References
BSI Position Statement on Standardization within KM
https://bit.ly/2NzVXrX
Knowledge Management PAS 2001: a guide to good practice
https://bit.ly/2PT4w2j
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 27
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
