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1. Relevance of knowledge management for testing center of excellence
Knowledge management (KM) in simplistic terms can be defined as a collection of
strategies and practices used to assimilate, articulate, share, sustain, reuse and
retirement of knowledge. Undoubtedly KM is very vital for prolonging the life of
knowledge. Many of the beliefs we have today (ranging from religious to
understanding how the prehistoric humans lived) are strongly influenced and
arrived at by reading and understanding the documentation (scriptures, carvings
and drawings) created by the early KM pioneers. KM very much applies and is
relevant to the present day context. In this new economy, the achievement of a
sustained competitive advantage depends on organization’s capacity to develop,
deploy and efficient use of its KM strategies.
Every piece of knowledge that is managed through KM is a Knowledge Asset
(KA). In the context of the current day organizations, these knowledge assets can
include anything from business processes, innovative ideas, lessons learned to
FAQs. Industries like manufacturing, logistics, health care have employed KM
since centuries. In the modern world, many of us have seen the importance and
relevance of the KM for operations like Help Desk and customer care. But, it is
equally important and relevant for the whole IT Services industry and particularly
Testing Organizations (TCoE).
Many organizations setup TCoEs with the intent to create a centralized team that
can independently verify and validate the IT solutions from the business
standpoint. While there are many advantages in having a TCoE
(like sharing of best practices, tools, techniques, standards etc which are
knowledge assets that can be efficiently managed using KM), one biggest
advantage is that, they are the team that understands and evaluates IT solutions
from the business stand-point. This very premise gives this team an undue
advantage of gaining greater understanding of the business processes and their
interdependence.

2. So, in my opinion, TCoEs are well equipped to champion the KM for the ‘business
processes’ knowledge assets (with review and approval from business). TCoE can
roll ‘business processes’ into their KA portfolio along with full life-cycle
management for the TCoE related assets (like processes, innovations, tools, best
practices and lessons learned).
In my personal experience, I have setup and worked in many TCoEs. I have seen a
tremendous change in the way the TCoEs work over the last 15 years. Some of the
challenges the TCoEs face include: flexing up and down in resourcing (just-in-time
resourcing) to meet changing business needs, optimize the cost and improve the
quality of delivery. While the above challenges are business driven, there is
another challenge that plagues the IT industry especially the offshore companies;
constant churn in the resources. One solution that can effectively address all the
above challenges is the efficient implementation and use of KM.
The following are some of the key points that must be kept in mind for KM:
1. Defining what KAs will be managed through KM
2. Work closely with Business to capture the Business Processes and get them
reviewed and approved before managing them in KM
3. Map Business processes and IT solutions/architecture so there is a correlation
between both these KA
4. Assign champions for each KA area who is responsible for managing the lifecycle of the KA
5. Use a platform that can enable the publication and sharing of the KA(there are
many commercial and open source tools that can be customized for this purpose
like SharePoint, Redmine etc )
6. Use KM portal as a key source of knowledge acquisition for new entrants to the
project/program
7. Make sure the KAs are constantly reviewed to ensure they are accurate and up to
date
The bottom line is, successful TCoEs have a strong KM framework and practices
in place and the world-class TCoEs include Business Process KA as part of their
KM strategy.
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