Knowledge Sharing Pattern Language

Problem	Lessons learned are collected in projects but the organization does not have any systematic way to store and share those to support the work in projects.
Initial Context	An organization not having a systematic procedure and environment to collect and share experiences (lessons learned).
Roles	An organization represented by by competence or quality management, for example. Project manager (including other project team members).
Forces	In organizations gained knowledge is "wasted" if not shared. The existing knowledge should not be difficult to find and reuse for project managers. (Komi-Sirviö et al. 2002.) Many organizations start their knowledge sharing project by establishing a new database and just assuming, that people will use it when it is ready. But neither contributions nor retrievals occur with much enthusiasm. (Dixon, 2000, p. 2.) Sharing knowledge takes time and effort from e.g. new knowledge development, but on the other hand, exploiting existing knowledge produces enormous cost savings (Dixon, 2000, pp. 19-20).
Solution	Select Knowledge Sharing System. Find a method for transferring knowledge to a group or individual that can reuse it (Dixon, 2000, p. 21). Concentrate especially on knowledge that should be created in projects and shared to other project teams (see Discovered Lessons, KSP15). Most probably one solution is an experience base, database for storing and sharing lessons learned, but remember also other ways of sharing knowledge and especially for supporting the use of the experience base. Define Use and Form. Define what kinds of a form of knowledge could be useful with the selected methods. Define and pilot that. Have some example knowledge ready so it is easier for people to contribute. Organize. Define owner for e.g. a resulting experience base. Define resources to maintain it. Communicate and Market the Base. Communicate the existence of the experience base, start motivating people to contribute for it. Study and Give Feedback. Study the experience base (etc.) and its possibilities. Give feedback about it and your needs for the knowledge to be shared. Maintain Experience Base. Maintain the experience base according to the feedback from projects. Continue maintenance as long as the experience base is valid for the users. See also Contributed Experience Base (KSP27). Communicate and Market the Base and Study. Support the continuous use of the experience base with communication and marketing activities in the organization. Continue this as long as the experience base is valid for the users. If the experience base is not valid, but through reasonable actions it could be redirected to support the work, a revision and reinitiation could be made.
Resulting Context	An organization having initiated an environment for systematic experience sharing.
Instances	Establish once, maintain and support with communication continuously. One potential pitfall is that the project managers and project team members will not see the benefits of this knowledge sharing system and thus not have the motivation to use it. The benefit of the system in practice is thus the most important criterion for the validity of the system.
Process Connection	Supports process improvement and organizational development. This can have an affect on any of the processes.