This template has provide invaluable to us when conducting Knowledge Inventories. Many users are often put off by the barrage of questions they commonly face in a questionnaire. This template can be filled in by them in a few minutes for each of their main activities and when collated with inputs from other users gives a quick overall picture of main knowledge flows.

The Blank Template

Instructions

1. Consider an important activity, task or process that you carry out as part of your job. This is the focal point for completion of one template and its name should be entered into the central box.
   
   
2. Consider the main sources of information and knowledge you need to carry out this task. Enter their names, sources and any specific attributes e.g. "updated weekly", "on the intranet") in the boxes on the left. Remember to include people as well as databases, documents etc.
   
   
3. Now list the knowledge that you generate in this activity. List the new knowledge in the bottom box, again with important attributes or ways in which you have added value to incoming knowledge.
   
   
4. Finally, list the main users and usages of your knowledge outputs in the right hand boxes. Put the most important people first. If different outputs go to different people, you may need to assign numbers to the entries in bottom box and append them to the relevant boxes on the right.

That's all there is to it. The fun stanrts when your completed templates are compared with those of your colleagues and those before and after you in the knowledge processing chain!

Additional Information and Feedback

There are, of course, many other tools that are used during the course of a knowledge inventory. Depending on the level of interest shown we may put them on this web site in future. In the meantime, we weclome any feedback and comments on this template. Let us know how you have used it modified it.

Other free tools in this series include The Know-All Assessment and The Knowledge Management Benefits Tree. See also Tools Overview.

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