HKSM

Continuously capture, create, share, and apply useful insights so the team delivers better outcomes now and the organization benefits later.

Purpose & When to Use

• Ensure the team can find and use the right know-how at the right time to make decisions and solve problems.
• Promote both explicit knowledge (documents, checklists) and tacit knowledge (experience, tips) sharing.
• Reduce rework by learning during delivery, not just at the end.
• Protect critical knowledge when people roll off or key experts are unavailable.
• Use on all projects, scaled to size and complexity; intensify when turnover risk, novelty, or uncertainty is high.

Mini Flow (How It’s Done)

• Define the knowledge approach: what to capture, where to store it, how to access it, and roles for contribution and review.
• Identify knowledge needs: map critical decisions, interfaces, and risks that require specific know-how.
• Capture during work: run brief after-action reviews, daily micro-lessons, and demos to collect insights continuously.
• Create and curate assets: distill tips, decision records, checklists, and templates from actual outcomes.
• Validate usefulness: peer-review key items for clarity, accuracy, and applicability before broad sharing.
• Store and tag: place items in a searchable repository with sensible tags and links to related work items.
• Share and apply: use communities of practice, show-and-tell sessions, and mentoring to spread tacit knowledge.
• Embed into delivery: link knowledge entries to backlog items, change requests, and standard operating procedures.
• Protect and hand over: transfer critical know-how before transitions and update organizational assets at closure.

Quality & Acceptance Checklist

• Knowledge items are concise, accurate, and actionable, with a clear title and summary.
• Each item includes context, decision rationale, date, owner, and tags for easy search.
• Sensitive information follows confidentiality and data protection policies.
• Lessons learned include the condition, action, and measurable result, not just opinions.
• Key practices and checklists are peer-reviewed and approved for reuse.
• Repository is accessible to the right people with simple navigation and version control.
• Critical knowledge risks are identified and have mitigation or transfer plans.
• Useful insights are integrated into standards, playbooks, or training where appropriate.
• Closeout includes a final synthesis of lessons and confirmation that handovers are complete.

Common Mistakes & Exam Traps

• Capturing lessons only at the end; best practice is continuous capture and application.
• Focusing only on documents; tacit knowledge needs conversations, pairing, and demonstrations.
• Storing without tagging or linking to work items; unusable knowledge does not improve outcomes.
• Confusing data or raw information with knowledge; interpretation and context make it actionable.
• Relying on a single person as the knowledge hub; creates a single point of failure.
• Over-documenting large manuals that no one reads; prefer brief, purpose-fit assets.
• Skipping validation; spreading unverified tips can create quality issues.
• Ignoring psychological safety; people will not share mistakes if blame is common.

PMP Example Question

Mid-project, a critical subject matter expert will leave in two weeks. Knowledge is scattered across chats and emails, and the schedule is tight. What should the project manager do first to reduce knowledge loss and keep delivery moving?

1. Ask the expert to write a comprehensive manual before leaving.
2. Plan a detailed retrospective after the next release to collect lessons.
3. Set up a lightweight knowledge-sharing approach and schedule focused handover sessions, capturing and tagging insights in a shared repository linked to work items.
4. Escalate to extend the schedule until a replacement is hired.

Correct Answer: C — Set up a lightweight approach and run focused handovers with capture and linkage.

Explanation: Immediate, practical capture and sharing with linkage to current work reduces knowledge risk and supports ongoing delivery. Large manuals, delayed retrospectives, or schedule delays do not address the urgent need effectively.