Knowledge Management Maturity Model (KMMM®)

Approach for assessing and developing maturity in knowledge management

Trends and Background
21st century is the age of knowledge-based economy. Companies, like individuals, compete on the basis of their ability to create and utilize knowledge. According to the KPMG's survey report in 2003, because of not making good use of the knowledge, 78 percent of the corporations realized that they blundered away a great deal of commercial opportunities. 80 percent of the corporations regarded knowledge as their strategic asset. Therefore, Knowledge Management (KM) has been recognized as one of important weapons for sustaining competition advantage.
Although KM has already been practiced in many enterprises, whatever consciously or unconsciously, it is seldom understood in all its facets. This makes it very difficult to recognize the potential gains from systematically and professionally developing KM activities and to turn those activities into a positive contribution to economic value added (EVA). For organizations which are interested in knowledge management it is often difficult to carry out an objectified assessment of the current position. This uncertainty presents a barrier to the introduction of suitable measures for improving knowledge management.

KMMM® Concept
In order to objectively evaluate the difference of organizations' knowledge management practices and design organizational KM activities, it is very necessary to construct a concept model as a suitable instrument for defining the organization’s current KM position and assessing future development requirements. This instrument should cover all structural areas of knowledge management in order to allow its systematic assessment and integral development.

The Knowledge Management Maturity Model (KMMM®) is an integrated KM assessment instrument and process for achieving a comprehensive analysis of the current status of knowledge management in an organization or organizational unit, and serves as a basis for planning improvement actions.

The KMMM® comprises an analysis model and a development model (see Fig. 1). In the analysis model, there are eight aspects to create assessment in all key areas of knowledge management and thus demonstrates in concise form the potential for improvement, including “Strategy”, “Knowledge”, “Process”, “Structure”, “Technology”, “People”, “Culture” and “Measures”. At the same time, six major KM activities are focused and analyzed in a more detail level, including “identify knowledge”, “acquire knowledge”, “create knowledge”, “organize knowledge”, “share knowledge” and “apply knowledge”. On the next level of the analysis model, more subtopics are described, which drill deeper into organizational practices supporting knowledge management. Based on the levels of the CMM (Capability Maturity Model) of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University, the development model defines five maturity levels of knowledge Management: “Initial” level, “repeated” level, “defined” level, “managed level” and “optimizing” level.
The analysis model creates transparency in all key areas of knowledge management and thus demonstrates in concise form the potential for improvement. The development model provides valuable information for reaching the next maturity level. The combination of these two elements can ensure the synchronous development and thus the ideal interlinking of the various key areas. We place particular emphasis on this synchronization in an integral development process, because we know that isolated solutions have no chance of working in knowledge management.

KMMM® Procedure
The whole procedure of a KMMM® assessment project is shown as below in Fig. 2. The duration of project is about 10~20 days, depending on different real situation.

We know from experience that a critical point in the diagnosis lies in the different ways of looking at one and the same symptom. For this reason the KMMM® is applied only by experienced knowledge management assessors who work on site in order to get as objective as possible a picture of the relevant maturity level of the knowledge management. The combination of different methods (e.g. self-assessment survey in the organization, interviews with groups and specific individuals, inclusion of different roles in the organization) is designed to minimize the bias from subjective representations.
Our KMMM® assessors work with situational descriptions from subtopics in every key area. They establish the level of every key areas of knowledge management using a “radar” valuation chart. The maturity level of the organization as a whole can then be determined from these individual values.

Benefits from KMMM®
The KMMM®-based diagnosis of knowledge management maturity provides the “real” picture of knowledge management status - a “radar” chart with KM key areas.
Furthermore, KMMM® assessment also provides a sound guide of strengths and weakness for deciding on and planning knowledge management activities in your organization.
In addition, it offers accurate improvement proposals and right interventions for the synchronous development of the various knowledge management key areas.
The KMMM® can additionally be used for the medium-term control of KM successes.
Only know where you are, can decide where you go. KMMM® assessment is the first crucial step for your KM implementation, giving you objective guiding points how to improve yourself. All in all, the presented model and the development potential derived from it represent a significant contribution to organization-wide knowledge management.