Session at DrupalDevDays in Barcelona Spain on June 16th 2012. Summary: When you're just one person, or three, knowing how something is done or why is not that hard. You can rely on comments in code, and when necessary ask the person. But as your organization grows it gets harder. Your group, team or company becomes a repository of knowledge, of how a certain website works, of why a module was written a certain way, or how something should be done. But this repository is increasingly hard to search and access. At NodeOne we've devised several ways to keep knowledge flowing between developers, even as teams grow. In this session on knowledge management for developers and teams I will talk about: - The problem of obstacles to sharing knowledge of solutions, implementations or projects. - How you can organize your projects and schedule to make exchange of knowledge easier. - Ways to work that helps share knowledge and information between developers. - Tools you can build in Drupal that will help you store and share, and turn that "tacit" knowledge Joe has, into something searchable and available to Karl who was just hired.

1. /* Talking about code */
Drupal Dev Days, Barcelona
June 16th, 2012
Jakob Persson, NodeOne
STOCKHOLM | GÖTEBORG | KØBENHAVN | OSLO www.nodeone.se

2. Introducing me
Web Strategist and CKO
Co-Founder of NodeOne
Worked with Drupal since 2005
jakob@nodeone.se
http://www.twitter.com/realsolipsist
http://drupal.org/user/37564
STOCKHOLM | GÖTEBORG | KØBENHAVN www.nodeone.se

3. Introducing
am and clients
So me of No deOne’s te
Scandinavia’s largest
Drupal services
provider
Employs 70 people
Offices in Sweden,
Denmark and
Norway

4. What we do at NodeOne,
apart from...

5. card games...
Hi, I’m
Dries!*
* No he’s not really Dries,
but you knew that already.
www.drupalcardgame.com

6. Druplicons wielding nun-
chuks...
Druplicon Road Trip – “Showdown in Paris” (YouTube)

7. Drupal rock stars...
“The Kitten Killers” Live at DrupalCon Copenhagen (photo by Dries)

8. Drupal air fresheners...
Drupal air fresheners revealed to the world

9. Druplicon cookie cutters
r
ilable at ou
longer ava ! (cutters,
No
booth! A LL GONE
not cute babies :) )
https://instagr.am/p/Jwg1XUiOIX/

10. Strategy and Usability Web strategy, usability studies and effect mapping
Design and UX User experience, GUI and graphic design
Development Modules, themes, distributions and install profiles
Hosting and scalability Hosting, optimization and monitoring
Training Courses, books, screencasts and learning library
Consulting Technical consulting and solution architecture

11. Talking is transfer of
knowledge

12. Knowledge Management
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Human_brain.png http://www.sxc.hu/photo/336511

13. Knowledge Management

14. Knowledge
Flow
Management

15. http://www.sxc.hu/photo/468734

18. Knowledge management (KM) comprises
a range of strategies and practices
used in an organization to identify,
create, represent, distribute, and
enable adoption of insights and
experiences.
Such insights and experiences
comprise knowledge, either embodied
in individuals or embedded in
organizations as processes or practices.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Human_brain.png http://www.sxc.hu/photo/336511

20. strategies and practices

21. strategies and practices
identify, create, represent,
distribute, enable adoption

22. strategies and practices
identify, create, represent,
distribute, enable adoption
insights and experiences

23. strategies and practices
identify, create, represent,
distribute, enable adoption
insights and experiences
knowledge

24. strategies and practices
identify, create, represent,
distribute, enable adoption
insights and experiences
knowledge
embodied or embedded

25. strategies and practices
identify, create, represent,
distribute, enable adoption
✓ Tools
✓ Processes
✓ Incentives
insights and experiences
✓ Communities of practice
✓ Exchange programs
knowledge
embodied or embedded

26. identify, create, represent,
distribute, enable adoption
insights and experiences
✓ Analysis
✓ Documents
knowledge
✓ Collaboration
✓ Conversation
embodied or embedded
✓ Presentation

27. insights and experiences
knowledge
✓ How do we gain insight and experiences?
embodied or embedded
✓ Learning
✓ Communication
✓ Sharing experiences

28. knowledge
embodied or embedded
✓ Knowledge versus information
✓ Learning and teaching
✓ Building on the knowledge of others

29. embodied or embedded
✓ Relying on key individuals
✓ Relying on practices and processes
✓ Shared ownership of knowledge

31. In-house
designer
Team 1
Team 2
Project Manager
Freelance Freelance
designer developer
Manager

32. In-house
designer
Team 1
Team 2
Project Manager
Freelance Freelance
designer developer
Manager

33. In-house
designer
Team 1
Team 2
What problems do you see
in your company that are
Project Manager
the result of a lack of
Freelance
designer
knowledge flow? Freelance
Manager developer

34. In-house
designer
Team 1
Team 2
What problems do you see
in your company that are
Project Manager
the result of a lack of
Freelance
designer
knowledge flow? Freelance
Manager developer

35. In-house
designer
Team 1
Team 2
Project Manager
Freelance Freelance
designer developer
Manager

36. Directed Removal of
action barriers
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/213894

37. Direct action through
initiatives
that break down into
projects
that break down into
tasks

38. http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2163139101/

40. “Knowledge is power”

41. “Knowledge is power”
Missing awareness of
knowledge

42. “Knowledge is power”
Missing awareness of
knowledge
Lack of time

43. “Knowledge is power”
Missing awareness of
knowledge
Lack of time
Missing reward
systems

44. “Knowledge is power”
Missing awareness of
knowledge
Lack of time
Missing reward
systems
Missing knowledge
management awareness

45. Lack of time
Missing knowledge
management awareness
Missing awareness of
knowledge
“Knowledge is power”
Missing reward
systems

46. 10 %
20 %
70 %

47. 10 %
20 %
70 %
o ut pe op l e !
It’s 7 0% a b

48. Team 1
Team 2

49. Team 1
Team 2
Community of practice

50. Community of practice
Focuses on a practice or domain
Organically created – not mandated
Agenda and projects defined by the community itself
Membership is defined by the knowledge of the members
Can exist as long as the members believe they have something to
contribute to, or gain from it

51. Community of practice
+ Decreasing the learning curve of new employees
+ Responding more rapidly to customer needs and inquiries
+ Reducing rework and preventing "reinvention of the wheel"
+ Spawning new ideas for products and services
+ Capture and share “best practices”

52. Community of practice
+ Decreasing the learning curve of new employees
+ Responding more rapidly to customer needs and inquiries
+ Reducing rework and preventing "reinvention of the wheel"
+ Spawning new ideas for products and services
+ Capture and share “best practices”

53. Team
Standup
Regular meeting
Brief – standing up keeps it short
Focuses on keeping work flowing – by asking what? next?
problems/obstacles?
Lead by the team’s scrum master

54. Team
Standup
+ Keeps entire team up to date on project status
+ Promotes closer working relationships with its
frequency
+ Raises topics needed to be discussed – increasing
knowledge transfer

55. Solution match-making
Includes everyone
Led and moderated by a facilitator
People attending briefly explain problems/bugs and
are then paired with those with solutions
Short and effective through moderation and time-boxing
Happens regularly – usually once per day

56. Solution match-making
+ Helps people stuck with bugs find someone who has
solved a similar problem
+ Prevents solutions being “re-invented” for lack of
knowing someone to ask
+ Leads to increased cross-learning as matches made
+ Raises topics needed to be discussed – increasing
knowledge transfer

57. laets/. $ mullog
laets ot tahw enifeD
]mohw morf[ ]tahw[ laets :snoitpO
odorf gnir laets/. $ mullog
.nelots gniR
Pair programming
Requires little – a wide desk, big screen and sufficient personal hygiene
Can be done by developers whenever they see the need
One developer is the tactical “driver” – the other the strategic
“observer/navigator” – roles are switched frequently

58. laets/. $ mullog
laets ot tahw enifeD
]mohw morf[ ]tahw[ laets :snoitpO
odorf gnir laets/. $ mullog
.nelots gniR
Pair programming
+ Helps new developers learn from more experienced
developers
+ Improves conformity in coding styles and solutions
+ Applied “promiscuously” can be used to spread
knowledge through the entire team
+ Reduces defects/bugs by 15 - 50%

59. 10 %
20 %
70 %

60. 0% a b ou t
It’s 2 10 %
proce sses!
20 %
70 %

61. ?
!
Training new staff
Newly hired are helped to come up to speed faster
Can be made very cheap and resource non-intense
Requires a mentor role and a CoP for development
Has great effect even at small scale

62. ?
!
Training new staff
+ Even a simple checklist of “things to know” makes
a difference
+ Speeds up learning and new hires can start billing
fast – as soon as day two
+ Offloads rest of team from having to support the new hire
+ Developers with teaching skills get recognition for
being “mentors”

63. 10 %
20 %
70 %

64. 0% a b ou t
It’s 1
te chno logy!
10 %
20 %
70 %

65. Wiki
Can be built on Drupal in short time
Good for storing information
Content needs to be kept up-to-date

66. Wiki
+ Good for storing instructions, scripts, snippets and
notes
+ Repository for things you need to keep track of and
which benefit more people than you
+ Has low barrier of entry

67. Site documents
List everything technical that’s needed to know to work on a
project
Managed and owned by the developers
Should be easy to access and stored with the site, for
example in its code repository

68. Site documents
+ Accessible and concise – follows a standardized format
+ Helps developers taking over maintenance of a website
+ Reduces depence on keeping notes in email and
risk of having conflicting information

69. Browser notes
Shows notes and remarks on drupal.org projects in
the browser
Installed in the browser as a user script and uses our
wiki as note repository
Everyone can edit and contribute notes – it’s easy and
painless

70. Browser notes
+ Makes information available contextually – no extra
step needed to find it
+ It’s always there - you don’t have to think about it
+ Encourages contribution and updating of notes to
keep them up-to date

71. Browser notes
Read more and download:
http://bit.ly/KP3ESH

72. issue tracker g.d.o git
projects
wikis
camps
Drupal
conferences maintainers
forums bof’s irc

76. http://www.flickr.com/photos/isapisa/5
630300229
events
Regular
references
Stories and
http://www.flickr.com/phot
os/heyrocker/5337481700

77. Communicate
Transparency the value of
contributions
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/189893

78. Yay, we
reached the top!
We’re
awesomest!
Progress and
milestones
matter

79. “ Walk
the
talk”
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1188091

80. $ € £
The money case for KM

81. se Softwa
en re
Lic s Patent
F ee s
Ca pital
Intellectual Property

82. “It’s all about the the brains!”
$$$ $$$
$$$
$$$
$$$
Your intellectual capital
goes home at 5
http://www.flickr.com/photos/isapisa/5630296705

83. Assets
Staff Know-
ledge
Brand Customers

84. Tacit Explicit Embedded

85. http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996595735@N01/40102158/

88. Economist Intelligence Study
Foresight 2020
e competi tiveness
rends to determin
“ Five key t
decade”
in t he coming
Knowledge management
Globalization
Demographics
Atomization
Personalization
www.eiu.com/site_info.asp?info_name=eiu_Cisco_Foresight_2020&rf=0

89. Getting started
✓ Const ant pain
few res ources
Can be fi xed with
✓
be fixe d easily
✓ Can
quickly
Will sho w results
✓

90. Knowledge is
strategically
important

91. Community of Practice

92. !
New routine

93. ✓ d o t h is
✓ t h e n t h at
✓ b u t d o n’t f o rg e t
t h is e it h e r
✓ o r t h is f o r t h a t
m a t te r
Checklist

94. Tool
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21025851@N00/2168414155/

95. Evaluate
Implement
Improve

96. Mastering
The New Edge in
Organizational
Knowledge
Knowledge Flow
Carla O’dell, Cindy Hubert
Frank Leistner

97. Summary
✓ Understand the problems you have as a result of a
lack of flow of knowledge
✓ People, not tech, are key to making knowledge flow
✓ Embed knowledge in your culture and processes
and don’t rely on a few knowledgeable superstars
✓ Knowledge is your most valuable asset
✓ Fix the most painful problems first, start simple,
evaluate and improve as you learn
✓ Being transparent about the value and use of
knowledge motivates people to contribute

98. Thank you for listening!
We’re h iring! UX’ers,
s
developers, product owner
and mo re! Talk to me.
email jakob@nodeone.se
twitter http://www.twitter.com/realsolipsist
drupal.org account http://drupal.org/user/37564