Process of Knowledge Transfer : Part One

Knowledge transfer is the process of transferring knowledge from one individual to another by means of mentoring, training, documentation, and other means. It is an important aspect of project management and life cycle. It is not uncommon practice to transfer information from one person to another during a project life cycle. Lack of proper knowledge transfer may lead the project to instable position. Those projects which are already in production may need special attention because different people contribute to the project at different time.

Process oriented knowledge transfer is an integral part any organization. There are typically two scenarios when knowledge transfer has to happen during the life of a particular project.

Firstly, when an existing employee moves out of the project and take up some new roles and responsibility. Success of any project depends on the methodology or process it flows during the life of the project. It follows a defined life cycle and process. Likewise accomplishment of a particular project, movement among employee is desirable for the betterment of the organization. At certain point of time developer has to step up to take the responsibility of a designer, designer has to take up the responsibility of architect. Similarly sooner or later project leader has to become project manager. In order to achieve these, people move in and out of project at regular interval. It is therefore desirable and responsibility of the employee to do knowledge transfer so that internal movement does not affect the project activities and client expectation.

Secondly, when an employee leaves the company, proper knowledge transfer become very crucial. This is because he/she won’t be available to provide any further assistance.
In Part Two, we will discuss about various factors affecting knowledge transfer.

Regards
Monu