Knowledge Audits 101

Stan Garfield's Weekly Knowledge Management blog highlights an interesting publication from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the hows and whys of knowledge audits called Auditing the Lessons Architecture. When the ADB embarked on a strategy for building up its knowledge assets and developing a knowledge-sharing culture, it decided to use knowledge audits to

(i) identify knowledge needs for policy, strategy, and operational efforts; (ii) draw up an inventory of existing knowledge products and services; (iii) recognize gaps in knowledge products and services; (iv) analyze knowledge flows within the organization and knowledge exchanges with outside agencies; (v) identify blockages to knowledge flows; (vi) create knowledge maps; and (vii) suggest agenda for organizational change.

This booklet documents how they did it and what they discovered in the process. The lessons learned are universal and could be applied to many other organizations.