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342 Chapter 10

Program funders Primarily in fi nancial measures, what the return was on the KM
investment, and how long it took for the KM investment to be “ paid back ” (referred
to as the breakeven or payback period)
Managers Mostly interested in how the KM tools and processes are working and how
much they are being used by their staff (referred to as adoption rate)
Employees/participants More concerned with practical and operational issues such as
how does this improve (or make worse) my everyday life at work?
It is therefore crucial to identify all stakeholders ’ objectives and ensure the KM
metrics will answer each of their concerns (another reason why often more than one
metric is required for a given KM project).
Next, the question of when to measure needs to be considered. The organizational
context is one of the fi rst things to consider: is the organization in a stable state? If
yes, then the assessment can be conducted. If however, there is instability, then you
should wait to do the assessment. For example, if there is an imminent merger with
another company, a major reorganization planned, or a downsizing where a great
number of employees are concerned about job security — any one of these would be
cause to wait for a KM assessment. Measuring KM when the organization is in crisis
mode will yield un-representative results. For example, during a downsizing, one
would not necessarily expect knowledge sharing to be at the top of an employee ’ s list
of priorities. The data collected will be skewed or biased because the organization is
not in its natural state.
For stable organizations, there are at least four possible points at which assessment
can occur (adapted from APQC 2001) . These four points refer to the different general
phases of a KM project (or really, any project), namely:
1. Preplanning
2. Start-up
3. Pilot project
4. Growth and expansion

A KM assessment can (and ideally should) be done at all four stages. The preplan-
ning stage assessment will provide a good baseline measure: a starting point against
which subsequent changes may be measured and compared. If we know from where
we are starting, then we have a better chance of measuring how far we got. In the
start-up phase, we can track basic progress toward KM goals. During a pilot project
phase, we can focus on measures that show how KM is impacting the business. During
the fi nal growth and expansion phase, we can apply more formal metrics to monitor