Knowledge management Cycle

Experience or know-how is on one hand located among a highly qualified staff (implicit knowledge). On the other hand, to make sure that experience and know-how is anchored in the institution it must be shared (explicit knowledge). For SDC it has become a priority to assure new experience and know-how to be documented, updated, shared and used. This commitment is guided by the following principles:

• The application of tested standards increase the professionalism of the interventions.
• Knowledge management needs additional personnel and financial resources
• Knowledge management instruments are only as good as they are used and updated.

In the following, the knowledge management cycle is described in detail. Thereby, Cash Workbook and the related Toolbox to the Cash Workbook are the key elements.

Knowledge management cycle

SDC has adopted a lean but effective knowledge management system allows to access, apply, improve and share the existing know-how. Over the recent years the system has proven to provide benefits such as:

• Efficient project implementation on time with a high performance (effectiveness)
• Less investment for repeated knowledge production by preventing the “re-invention of the wheel”
• Less dependency on external know-how.

The following table shows the 5 main steps of the SDC knowledge management cycle:

Step	Output	Participants	Lead
Final reporting	Draft final report Project documentation Pre-selection of useful examples Draft project fact sheet	Project manager	Project manager
Operational debriefing	Final report Hand over of project documentation (project filing system to knowledge management unit Selection of useful examples by the knowledge management unit Final project fact sheet	Project manager Desk officer Head knowledge management unit Other relevant positions within institution Partners Other stakeholders	Desk officer or Head knowledge management unit
Update information platform	Uploading of selected examples and fact sheets onto the information platform	Knowledge management unit	Head knowledge management unit
Knowledge sharing	Implementation of workshops on specific topics relevant for the preparation and implementation of cash projects in order to: share experience among practitioners enlarge the pool of practitioners maintain an experienced pool of practitioners	Project managers Desk officers Head knowledge management unit Other relevant position within institution Partners Other stakeholders	Head knowledge management unit
Operational briefing	Take note of useful examples from the information platform Define the project preparation according to the SDC Cash workbook Agree on ToRs of the assessment Agree on a draft project document including containing the institutional benchmarks	Project manager Desk officer Head knowledge management unit Other relevant positions within institution Partners Other stakeholders	Desk officer

The 5 steps of the knowledge management cycle are describes in more detail below.

Final reporting

By writing a final report the project management has to reflect what was successfully implemented as well as what couldn’t. The final report has to present the description of main results and “by-products”, the process of implementation, the effects and satisfaction produced as well as the context the Cash Project worked in. The final report shall be also the opportunity for a critical analysis on selected topics to be improved.

For these reasons it is compulsory that the final report is comprehensive but condensed, attractive and to a certain extent also provocative.

Purpose of the final report:

• The basis for a constructive debriefing at HQ: critical review, cross-check of the objectives agreed between HQ and cash implementer (see next knowledge management element)
• The justification of expenditures and accountability of efforts towards beneficiaries
• The information for public relations purposes
• To make your cash experiences profitable by integrating them into the cash knowledge base

Final reports of SDC Cash Projects are primarily addressed to the HQ. In addition there might be an extended stakeholder audience interested in the report. It is therefore important to define the audience of the report beforehand, in order to clarify what type of information will be shared with how. This is important in regard of discussing internals which might not be to be shared with an extended audience. The technical know-how has to be presented in annexes and archived in an appropriate filing system.

Preparation of the final report

• Drafting the final report: the project manager establishes as draft in a report, to be submitted to his superior in the operational line of command. This draft serves as a discussion base for the operational debriefing.
• Preparation of the project documentation: the project manager prepares final project documentation in form of an integral project filing system, which will serve as the future data source of the implemented Cash Project.
• Pre-selection of useful newly created documents: the project manager selects a series of document from the final project documentation. This pre-selection serves as the base for the final selection during the debriefing of useful examples to be shared on the information platform.
• Drafting of a fact sheet: the project manager prepares a draft fact sheet of the implemented Cash Project. This pre-selection serves a the base for the final selection of useful examples to be shared on the information platform.

Operational debriefing

The operational debriefing of a project after its completion is the main event for the collection of know-how. Back to HQ, or as an alternative back to the country office, the stakeholders have a short window of opportunity to analyse the project implementation.

Preparation of the operational debriefing

HQ, or alternatively the country office, will organise the operational debriefing. Emphasis should be given to the elaboration of lessons learnt and best practices based on the above mentioned preparatory documentation.

A useful mean to analyse the performance of a project is the so called SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) combined with a list of “best practices”. Depending of the size of the project it might be useful to make the analysis considering different aspects of the project implementation separately.

Aspect	Parameters to be considered
Result	Extent of reaching the project goals and objectives Extent of complying with institutional benchmarks
Process	Quality of project steering, local set up Quality of communication and public relation activities Quality of procedures and implementation steps
Impact	Degree of satisfaction among a selection of beneficiaries Monitoring the use of the contributions Monitoring among non-beneficiaries or 2nd order beneficiaries (e.g. shop owner) about reception of the project
Context	Monitoring the security situation (possible shift of the political situation) Monitoring of issues of conflict sensitivity related to the project

Purpose and output of the operational debriefing

• Elaboration of lessons learnt and best practices based on the draft final report previously submitted by the project manager
• Finalisation of the final report after feedback form stakeholders and finalisation of the project fact sheet.
• Sharing of newly acquired experience among the stakeholders involved in the project implementation as well within interested units within the institution.
• Handing over of project documentation (project filing system to knowledge management unit) in order not to loose valuable raw data.
• Selection of useful examples and templates by the knowledge management unit

Update information platform

Since 2006, SDC has decided to share its gathered experience and knowledge from realized Cash Projects via this platform on the internet (http://www.sdc-cashprojects.ch/).

As a consequence, after an operation debriefing of a self-implemented Cash Project, SDC’s Project Team Cash uploads the selected information to its platform on the internet (for details see below).

Knowledge sharing

As mentioned above, implicit knowledge which is available individually among the qualified staff is one half of a successful knowledge management system. Therefore it is important for SDC:

• to share new experience among its pool of practitioners,
• to enlarge as well as to maintain its experienced pool of practitioners

SDC is anxious to have its personnel well prepared for best possible and professional performance at field level. Consequently, SDC provides on a regular bases workshops and training courses on specific topics relevant for the preparation and implementation of Cash Projects.

Operational briefing

The operational briefing represent the moment, when fruit form the knowledge management process can and must be earned. It is the moment, when best practices, lessons learnt and tested standards can be passed on to the preparation of a planned project and thereby significantly contributes to a professional implementation.

In general, it is up to the desk officer in charge, to make sure that at this crucial point the knowledge management cycle is closed.