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104 Chapter 4

Only the last point would differ and it could be replaced by “ designing and imple-
menting a knowledge management system or knowledge repository. ” On the other
side were the subject matter experts, and they had to be able to:

• Explain important knowledge and know-how
• Be introspective and patient
• Have effective communication skills
Subject or domain experts were usually “ sole sources of information whose exper-
tise companies wish to preserve ” ( McGraw and Harrison-Briggs 1989 , 7). Today, many
organizations face knowledge continuity concerns due to a wave of retiring baby
boomers who represent knowledge walking out the door. The concerns are quite
similar and the techniques used show a great deal of overlap. For example, multiple
experts were often participants in knowledge engineering sessions in order to cover
the range of expertise they represented, to validate the content, to provide different
perspectives, and so on. A number of group knowledge acquisition techniques were
developed and used successfully with such groups. These approaches would be a
perfect fi t for knowledge acquisition at the community of practice level.
Another artifi cial intelligence researcher ( Parsaye 1988 ) outlined the following three
major approaches to knowledge acquisition from individuals and groups:
1. Interviewing experts
2. Learning by being told
3. Learning by observation

All three approaches are applicable to tacit knowledge capture, but it is critical to
note that no one approach should be used to the total exclusion of the others. In
many cases, a combination of these approaches will be required to capture tacit knowl-
edge. The following section presents a toolkit and guidelines on the strengths and
drawbacks of each tool in order to help select the best combination of techniques to
use for a variety of different knowledge capture situations.

Interviewing Experts A number of techniques can be used to optimize the interview-
ing of experts. Two of the more popular means include structured interviewing and
stories.

Structured Interviewing Structured interviewing of subject matter experts is the most
often used technique to render key tacit knowledge of an individual into more explicit
forms. In many organizations, structured interviewing is done through exit interviews