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searching for information, processing information, and coordinating and interacting
with others. Participants are typically asked to keep this tabular checklist on their
desks and to jot down their answers every day for a period of time (a week minimum
to a month maximum). Time use should be measured either before and after a com-
munity of practice has been implemented or, alternatively, at regular intervals in order
to track changes over time.
A community of practice can also be evaluated on its health, on its outcomes, and
on the impact it has had on the organization ( Fontaine and Millen 2004 ; Lesser and
Storck 2001 ; McDermott 2002 ) Health refers to the number of participants, the fre-
quency and quality of knowledge sharing between them, and the level of community
activity in general. For example, the number of community meetings held would be
one indicator of the health or activity level of the community. Outcomes measure the
individual and group benefi ts derived from CoP membership such as personal knowl-
edge and learning, strength of relationships, and access to information of the other
members. Outcomes are usually detectable when a community has reached a certain
level of maturity or coalescence. The impact dimension measures the return on invest-
ment (ROI); the return on time (ROT) spent on community activities (or time saved
by being a community member), increased innovation, and increased organizational
capability. Impact is often not measured directly or mathematically, although some
formulas do exist to “ operationalize ” this metric.
Table 10.3 summarizes some of the major CoP metrics used at the individual, group,
and organizational benefi t levels (adapted from Fontaine and Millen 2004 ).

Key Points

• Traditional metrics tend to be fi nancial in nature and diffi cult to adapt to KM activi-
ties and outcomes.
• The costs of KM are too visible and too easy to measure while the benefi ts tend to
be soft, intangible and much more long-term in nature. This makes the return on
investment (ROI) and the payback period diffi cult to assess.
• A good measurement strategy should be formulated before measuring anything —
one that addresses who, what, when, why, and how of metrics.
• There are a number of fairly sophisticated KM measurement techniques now that
can help assess how well an organization is progressing. These include benchmarking,
the balanced scorecard method, the house of quality matrix, and the results-based
metric.