8.2. Knowledge Capture Process

The knowledge capture process has four subprocesses, shown in Figure 8-2. They are initiation, knowledge capture, review and approval, and release. The knowledge capture process is most often initiated from within the problem management process. It is initiated when a previously undocumented problem or symptom is encountered during the support delivery process. The process is also initiated when the internal testing or quality assurance (QA) group identify problems. These groups can initiate the process before something developed internally is released into the customer environment or when something new is discovered after release into the environment. In either case, the process should be initiated so the information can be captured. The process should also be initiated when a change request has been completed or when a defect has been repaired. This ensures that changes and repairs are available to agents and customers. If other groups within IT are responsible for distributing (software) or making the changes (server upgrade, etc.), the knowledge base should be updated prior to distribution so that agents have access to the latest information. The update to the knowledge report can be as simple as updating the change request field to indicate that the work is done, but it will most likely be more involved. For example, the new documentation may include a link to the new code so that it can be downloaded and an updated solution that provides detailed installation instructions.

The knowledge capture process is also initiated when you purchase new knowledge base content or when a vendor product you support releases a new list of known bugs. The new information must be incorporated into your knowledge base environment. How the information is incorporated depends on your knowledge base, the way you create and store knowledge base reports, and the format and volume of the new knowledge base content. As shown in Figure 8-2, the data can be integrated into an existing knowledge base or kept as standalone. The process of making the new data available varies from service center to service center and product to product, and so is not covered in any detail.