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Knowledge Management for an IT Department?

Posted by Cliff on from the improve-your-staff's-organizational-skillz dept.

Laurentiu asks: "In every IT department out there there's a wealth of heterogenous information floating around: code snippets, HOWTOs, FAQs, docs, spreadsheets, post-it notes etc. Asking Joe where he put that file won't work forever. So what is, in your experience, a good way to manage this knowledge? And what software would you recommend for such a task?"

5 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. MediaWiki by akmolloy · · Score: 5, Informative

    We've been using MediaWiki for this exact purpose: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki. It's easy to install, a snap to manage, and makes it easy to share your knowledge with the rest of the world if that's something you want to do.

    1. Re:MediaWiki by Bistronaut · · Score: 4, Informative

      The engineering company I work for uses MediaWiki as well. It is perfect for storing all sorts of random information. All those "knowledge management" apps that try to categorize all your info in one fixed structure always end up being more work to maintain, and there's always information that just doesn't fit into the system. Wikis are easier to organize (therefore easier to get information out of) and easier to get information into as well. I tried some of the other Wikis, but MediaWiki ended up being easier to install and more powerful to boot.

    2. Re:MediaWiki by Shewmaker · · Score: 4, Informative

      I haven't set up MediaWiki, but my coworkers and I chose MoinMoin because it doesn't require a database. We've been pleased with its ease of use, speed, and stability.

      They have a Wiki Engine Comparison page that was useful for helping us decide which one best fit our needs.

      --
      "For the Snark was a Boojum, you see." -From the Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits, by Lewis Carroll
  2. Search by deodato · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I reckon the people suggesting Google are on the right track. For better or worse, search is how people navigate heterogenous information these days and I think you are wasting time if you try and work out some highfallutin classification system.

    Doesn't have to be Google though - there are a pile of tools (htdig etc) that you can use to crawl your kb and provide a basic search ui.

  3. Plone Help Center by Xenophon+Fenderson, · · Score: 4, Informative

    While we are probably going to end up with SharePoint (which isn't a bad collaboration tool if all your fellow staff members know is Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), I personally like the Plone Help Center. You can see examples on the Plone web site or on my personal web site.

    --
    I'm proud of my Northern Tibetian Heritage