Knowledge Management is an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, managing and sharing an organization\'s information assets like documents, database, other repositories and employee\'s expertise. It is a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time so they can make the right decisions. Effective management of knowledge is important because knowledge can create commercial value only when it is put into action. Knowledge is fortunately a process that can be nurtured in organizations. This presentation explains Tacit and Explicit, the two forms, the knowledge comes from in.

1. Defense & Aviation Internet Banking & Finance Automobiles Business Universities Navigation Library Management Railways Aerospace Online Education Healthcare IT ~ MANAGING TACIT & EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE ~ by: Ratnakar Sharma (rs8874)

2. OBJECTIVES  To discuss whether Tacit is generally more valuable to an organization than Explicit  To supplement the discussions with examples, anecdotes and/or experiences.  To apply the concepts of Tacit and Explicit Knowledge to the organizational context.  To specify which one is more valuable, why and how it can be leverage. 2

3.  Information Technology performs a number of vital roles in modern world today.  Digital Economy has created a new dimension of competition.  To compete, IT companies must have some strategic assets and capabilities.  Process something that no one else has or does in IT Industry.  Knowledge Management is to focus & pay attention on improving judgment and discretion.  Knowledge Management helps to identify, capture, manage and share an organization’s information assets like documents, database, other repositories and employees expertise. INTRODUCTION TO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 3 According to Samuel Johnson: Knowledge is of two kinds, we know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. There are two forms of knowledge, namely TACIT & EXPLICT =>

6. CYCLE OF LEARNING 6 Cycle of Learning portrays knowledge management as a spiral in which one type of knowledge gets created into another, and in the process gets shared across multiple stakeholders. Cycle of Learning starts from individuals who share their internal knowledge by socializing or capturing it into digital or analog form. Shared knowledge is then internalized and the process creates new knowledge inside them. Cycle of Learning portrays Tacit and Explicit Knowledge, and how one type changes into another.   

7. TACIT-TO-TACIT TACIT-TO-EXPLICIT 7 Tacit-to-Tacit is a form of knowledge sharing that involves transfer of Tacit knowledge to an individual or group that retains it as tacit knowledge. When IT communities meet, and the common interests get together, they informally exchange a lot of information with each other. The information gets disseminated across the ‘grapevine’. The process of converting Tacit-to-Explicit is called ‘Externalization’, that means making internal & implicit knowledge, external & explicit. Tacit knowledge can only be made Explicit when it is possible to codify and express such knowledge formally, in forms associated with explicit knowledge. Examples: Daily or weekly reports, reviews, monthly technical review, traceability matrices, writing journals and articles etc. Examples: Telephonic conversation, get together, public meetings, group discussions, market surveys, opinion polls etc.

8. EXPLICIT-TO-TACIT EXPLICIT-TO-EXPLICIT 8 The process of converting Explicit-to-Tacit is called ‘Internalization’ and takes place through learning and training. Explicit knowledge creates a new Tacit knowledge. Explicit-to-Explicit knowledge transformation is the process of creating a new knowledge from the existing knowledge by integrating the information using statistical techniques and pattern detection. Competent knowledge that reside in media such as documents, meetings, telephonic conversation and networks is combined and exchanged through this process. According to Nonaka (1991): Explicit knowledge resides in three forms, namely Metaphors, Analogies and Concepts. Some part of Tacit becomes concepts, while others resides as analogies and metaphors. Examples: Reading a news paper, Watching Television, Learning through text books etc. Examples: Digitized form of documents and text books, Software applications and tools etc

10. 10 Anecdote: David Parnas determined the effect of Tacit Knowledge in a modern application during the requirements collation phase of a project which resulted in the formulation of a requirements specification for an already existing aircraft. Requirement: Altimeter needle should read “3750ft”, when both barometric & ground following radar altimeter fail. Problem: Determine if the requirement was correct, where the number is derived from? Analysis: It was found that the requirement was correct, although none of the stakeholders interviewed were able to explain why? Eventually a pilot explained that it was the aircraft’s mean cruising altitude, so this was most likely to be aircraft’s altitude at the time of the altimeter failure! Outcome: In this instance the knowledge appeared to be ‘Tacit’ because of a failure in organizational communication, giving rise to potential further cases of such Tacit-like-knowledge. So Tacit Knowledge may exhibit its presence in SRS. Identifying TK in SRS may impact on other requirements. - 0ft - 2000ft - 3000ft - 3750ft - 1000ft Tracing Tacit Knowledge Based SRS

12. 12 TRACING TACIT BASED REQUIREMENTS Investigate the unclearly defined and poorly sourced knowledge. Presence of Tacit Knowledge in the SRS demonstrates a description of the external behavior of a tacit process. Parse and process the natural language text in order to determine the origins of requirements and hence whether they are based on TK. For this LSA (Latent Semantic Analysis) may be used. Split the requirements specification into chunks and establish a relationship between individual requirements and source documentation. Analyze and determine the start and end boundaries of chunks in the SRS. In Figure above: Red Lines => splitting of source and specification into chunks, and Blue Lines => equivalences found by using LSA. Here, chunks t(4) , t(6) and t(7) flagged by the system as examples of poorly sourced knowledge, potentially Tacit Knowledge, as their source is not known.

14. TACIT KNOWLEDGE: CONSTRUCTIVE FACTOR Long back ago, Chiranjeevi (Telugu Film Actor) and others were aboard a flight, suddenly the pilot experienced some technical problem and did not know what to do in that hazardous situation. The pilot somehow managed aircraft landing in a paddy field to save many lives just using his Tacit Knowledge he’d acquired through his flying experience. The pilot was rewarded later for his wit and wisdom. Recently, an IIM-Calcutta student has bagged a record $ 350,000 (INR 1.6 crore) offer from a global investment bank based in South East Asia. If the bank pays him a huge amount as salary, just imagine, how much will the bank make from him utilizing his Management Skills, and especially his ‘Tacit Knowledge’. 14 Once upon a time, the king wanted to recruit a smart minister for his kingdom. He had to choose one out of the two strong candidates, one Prime Minister’s son and another a young lad from a dusky village. At that time an event was taking place, the king called both separately, and asked them to find out what is happening outside. PM’s son went and came back in 5 min and answered the question. King again asked few queries regarding that, the son again went and came in 5 min. King again asked, he went and came back, king asked and he went.... it took almost 3 hours. Next, the king called the boy and asked the first question, the boy went and came back after 30 min, king kept asking queries, the boy kept answering those questions. The difference in both the PM’s son and boy’s approach was that the boy had gone to an extra mile anticipating the king’s queries, and collected all the relevant information, though took a little time. So his ‘Tacit knowledge’ led him to become the Minister. Tacit knowledge is relatively easy & inexpensive way to begin managing knowledge. Sharing information stored in people’s head has now become a new economy and a new trend in Internet Business .

15. TACIT KNOWLEDGE: DAMAGING FACTOR 15 Sometimes we try to solve the problem our own using Tacit knowledge. In this process we end up creating new problems. In Air Force, they say, don’t open your mouth, if you don’t know and don’t touch a aircraft system if you’re not familiar with. Once a trainee, released the ‘Ejection Seat’ of an aircraft that was on ground for maintenance purpose. The trainee was very curious to know the facts about the aircraft, and by mistake, pulled the ‘Ejection Seat’ system, his head was chopped off and he had lost his life on the spot. Never ever try doing or imitating someone else’s job until unless you’ve the expertise in that. We can hurt ourselves, if try to fix a problem of a different field that is not our cup of tea. DO NOT TOUCH DANGER