Welcome to the Roles and Knowledge Management Blog!
Roles and Knowledge Management (RKM) is a Microsoft Services engagement that has been available to customers for the last several years. It was originally developed by Microsoft Denmark and known as the “Operations Information Framework”. The engagement focuses on roles and responsibilities and includes implementation of a custom SharePoint 2010 application known as the “Operations Center.” This application is used by the customer to schedule proactive operations tasks and track completion, which aids continual IT Service improvement. RKM engagements have been delivered throughout the globe and the customer base has doubled every year for the last four years.
We’re creating the RKM blog for those customers that have completed an RKM engagement and are leveraging the Operations Center application in their day-to-day IT Service operations. Posts will contain information (links/tips/techniques/tools/etc.) that may be useful to RKM customers. Potential RKM customers will also visit this blog for information and I want to begin things with a description of the RKM solution and why it is provides so much value.
An RKM engagement is typically a two to four week engagement with the duration depending upon the complexity of the IT Service being addressed. Delivery resources provided by Microsoft consist of an experienced operations consultant and subject matter expert(s) for the technologies involved. The operations consultant leads the engagement and takes the customer through a series of interactive sessions to assess the current operations role coverage, plan the necessary changes, and implement those changes-leveraging content and technology provided with RKM.
Assessing the current operations starts with decomposing the IT Service into its components (Hardware, Software, Settings,Services and Customers). This exercise, known as service mapping, allows the customer to understand the various dependencies and escalation paths. A tool is leveraged to create the service map, which can be saved as a Visio diagram. This tool is left with the customer and can be used to maintain the service map as it evolves over time, and used to map other customer IT Services.
In addition to service mapping, the operations consultant leads sessions with the different organizations involved in operating the IT Service. In these sessions, it is determined which individuals are responsible, accountable, consulted or informed, for different operational responsibilities. An analysis is done on this information to determine gaps or overlap for the various roles. The information gained from the assessment activities is used in determining the responsibility areas, and what roles within those responsibility areas will be needed. The Operations Center application will be configured with those roles and responsibilities to organize the knowledge and schedule operations tasks.
The Operations Center is a custom SharePoint 2010 application that is setup as its own web application. It installs two SQL Server databases; one for storing work instructions and one for reporting purposes. The application is used by all individuals involved in operating the IT Service. The SharePoint platform provides a rich set of document management capabilities, and the customizations provide the ability to schedule tasks, present supporting work instructions, and track task completion.
Another unique aspect of the RKM solution is that sets of recommended operational tasks, along with work instructions for completing those tasks, are included for Microsoft technologies used in providing the IT Service. These sets of instructions, known as “content packs”, are loaded into the Operations Center application, where the tasks that will be used are selected, roles are assigned, and any necessary customizations are made. The Microsoft technology subject matter expert placed on the engagement works with the customer to identify the set of tasks used, the appropriate roles assigned, the recurrence schedules, and necessary instruction customizations.
When the application installation/training is completed and task customizations are done, the customer is ready to begin leveraging Operations Center for their on-going operations. The process of; scheduling tasks, completing tasks, analyzing the operator performance and then making the necessary task/instruction modifications, repeats over time and allows the customer to make the necessary adjustments to continually improve IT Service management.
The Operations Center application and recommended operations tasks/instructions provide value, but the greatest value from RKM is when the customer has taken the steps to implement the ITIL/MOF based improvements to their processes. If they create a map of their IT Service, identify roles with clear responsibilities, focus on proactive activities, and implement continual IT Service improvement, then they have “gotten it.” Those customers will begin to plan for further improvements and begin making statements like, “we should create trend reports to track our task actvity over time” or asking questions like, “can we author content packs to support other processes?”
I hope I have provided a clear summary of the RKM solution and the value realized by customers, but don’t take my word for it. We have a couple case studies published (Saudi Electric Company and Saudi Post) and more information on https://www.microsoft.com/microsoftservices.
Ken
