Conducting an Effective Knowledge Transfer Before Roll-off
Why is it so important?
Have you ever received a project outcome but weren’t sure how to fully use it? Or, have you ever delivered a project but lacked adequate time to provide your customer with enough information to fully realize its benefits?
There’s a demonstrated gap in both of these situations. Knowledge transfer (KT) is the solution.
Without proper knowledge transfer, the project’s value won’t be fully realized because end users aren’t aware of how to benefit from it. Imagine you build a fully-optimized master database for a company, but the data admins don’t know how to use it. Or consider a situation in which a project team develops an exceptional software solution for their client but doesn’t tell them how to configure it for different scenarios. The result is not going to be so good.
Knowledge Transfer and Change Management
Knowledge transfer is a vital part of change management. According to Lewin’s Change Management Model, there are three key stages when managing change: unfreeze, change, and refreeze.
Knowledge transfer can be thought of as a subset of the refreeze stage. Let’s explore two critical knowledge transfer activities in this stage, “identifying what supports the change” and “keeping everyone supported and informed.” Both require proper knowledge transfer. For instance, when a new master database is built, it needs to be supported by admins. The admin won’t be able to support the system unless they have received an adequate knowledge transfer that empowers them to do so.
Consider a case where an AI-based chatbot has been built. Both end users and those who maintain it need to know exactly how to operate it and ensure it functions in order to achieve their objectives. Therefore, proper knowledge transfer is required. Another example is when your team has completed the MVP of a project, and another team needs to take over and build on it. They won’t be able to properly contribute unless they have received significant knowledge transfer.
The Knowledge Transfer Approach I Recommend
Depending on the client and project, a certain degree of knowledge transfer is necessary. Here’s the knowledge transfer approach that I recommend. I hope you find it helpful for planning, implementing, and tracking your knowledge transfer activities.
- Align with the client
Why? If not, you may invest time preparing knowledge transfer material that the client may not need. The first step for you to take is to speak with the client and confirm their knowledge transfer expectations, such as:
· Their need for knowledge transfer.
· Their expectations regarding the balance between project work and knowledge transfer work. This is essential, as each team has a limited capacity, so it’s crucial to align with the client on what percentage of the team’s capacity is expected to be used for knowledge transfer purposes.
· The approach and engagement required from the client during the knowledge transfer process.
· The duration over which the knowledge transfer is to occur. To establish this, you’ll need to identify the scope of knowledge transfer.
2. Identify the Scope of Knowledge Transfer
To identify the scope of the knowledge transfer, I recommend running the following workshops:
a. Project team brainstorming session
Conduct a brainstorming session with the project team to identify which areas they believe are valuable for knowledge transfer. During this session, it’s a good idea to create a shared document and ask team members to add to it even after the workshop should they recall important areas afterward.
Here’s one way to organize this shared document. I’ve included some examples in this table to illustrate what a completed version looks like.
Depending on the client’s needs, your knowledge transfer could take different forms. Some common forms include:
- creating new knowledge transfer documents
- auditing and updating knowledge transfer documents and other relevant references
- crafting knowledge transfer videos
- live/recorded knowledge transfer sessions
b. Client brainstorming workshop
A similar brainstorming session with the client needs to be held to identify what they feel will be valuable as part of the knowledge transfer. Including end-users in these sessions to discover their needs is extremely important since they will be using the project’s outcome.
I recommend designing a shared document for this workshop that is similar to the one above.
c. Joint workshop
Host a joint workshop with the project team and client representative(s) to consolidate and agree upon the knowledge transfer scope for each group identified in previous workshops.
Note that each group’s brainstorming workshops need to happen in parallel and separately. To minimize bias and capture a wider range of knowledge transfer areas and items, it’s best if there are no common participants in these two brainstorming sessions. Ideally, the only shared participant in both brainstorming sessions is the SO, scrum master, project owner, or whoever is the facilitator. In addition, for each brainstorming workshop, you may need more than one session to generate an adequate list of knowledge transfer items.
Check out the two tables above and the examples of knowledge transfer items. You’ll see that knowledge transfer for ‘Personas’ is listed in both workshops. This is OK. There are bound to be common KT areas for both groups. The rest of the items are unique to each workshop.
During this joint workshop, all items are consolidated, and the output is a master knowledge transfer table (see below), which will be used to track the knowledge transfer process.
3. Carry out. Customer feedback. Iterate. Track
As knowledge transfer items are carried out, it’s essential to:
· Track progress
· Get customer feedback
· Iterate
Track progress
A master knowledge transfer table, such as the example below, can help track knowledge transfer work.
Please note that I’ve added the following columns to the master knowledge transfer table:
- ETA: This is the estimated time the knowledge transfer area is expected to be completed. Note that the ETA needs to be estimated by the SME who will be working on the related knowledge transfer area and agreed on by the client. The ETA can either be the date by which a document is completed or updated or the date when a knowledge transfer session needs to occur.
- Story: Creating a user story and linking it in the story column allows us to account for the effort spent on the knowledge transfer items during the sprint. You will know in sprint planning what percentage of the team’s capacity will be estimated for knowledge transfer work.
- Reviewer: Like other user stories, knowledge transfer stories need to be reviewed before being closed. For knowledge transfer items, a member of the client’s team is likely to be the reviewer (for example, reviewing if the knowledge transfer document or video is complete with respect to the acceptance criteria, etc.).
- Status: The status column lets us track what knowledge transfer areas are completed or in progress.
Carry out the knowledge transfer
Based on your knowledge transfer plan, team members are to carry out the knowledge transfer items assigned to them. The key is to stay with the plan and update it iteratively.
Ensure the team completes these items based on the agreed format and ETA. In addition, make sure that the user stories capturing these items are assigned to the right team member and that they are aware of the expectations of the work assigned to them, such as including acceptance criteria in the user stories.
Examples of story outcomes are reference documents, knowledge transfer sessions, recorded knowledge transfer videos, etc.
Customer feedback
You need customer feedback to determine whether you have done a good job in your knowledge transfer. This input will help confirm what you’re doing well and what you can do better. Moreover, customer feedback may uncover new questions and knowledge transfer items.
Iterate
Additional knowledge transfer items are often discovered during your knowledge transfer sessions with the customer. The more the customer learns, the more questions they may have. Therefore, use customer feedback to iterate. Add any new knowledge transfer items to the master tracking table and make sure they get done.
4. Ensure that KT items are accessible and saved in the agreed-upon location
It is essential that clients can easily find the materials resulting from knowledge transfer should they require them for future reference.
To improve the clarity of the knowledge transfer work and outcomes:
· Ensure the client agrees upon a centralized location to store knowledge transfer outcomes (for example, documents and videos). The person working on the knowledge transfer items must also know this location.
· Notify team members working on the knowledge transfer stories and those who review these stories of their responsibilities.
· For knowledge transfer stories, advising team members on refinement standards, such as acceptance criteria, who the end-user is, etc., can help improve expectations.
· For knowledge transfer sessions and videos, identify who the audience is. Then, work with the team members preparing for these training sessions and the audience to agree on when these sessions should occur. These dates can be the ETA for knowledge transfer items that require knowledge transfer sessions.
Conclusion
Regardless of the project’s nature and outcome, some degree of knowledge transfer before the project team’s roll-off is necessary. Neglecting to do so results in end users not knowing how to properly utilize the project outcome and support the client’s post-project needs. It’s difficult to fully realize the project value without adequate knowledge transfer.
Knowledge transfer is more than a procedural step; it’s the foundation for ensuring a project’s benefits are fully realized long after the original team has moved on. It’s about confidently passing the baton, ensuring the project not only survives but thrives in the hands of those who continue its journey. Here’s to seamless transitions and empowered teams, making every project’s impact lasting!
