Roles of players in the KM team

¥ The knowledge analyst

Pro: collects, organises and disseminates knowledge, becoming a walking repository of best practices.

Con: can easily take all of the best practices with them if they leave.

¥ The knowledge manager.

Pro: coordinates efforts of engineers, architects and analysts.

Con: may lead to fiefdoms being formed around the success of each manager's domain.

¥ The CKO

Pro: responsible for enterprise-wide coordination of all knowledge leadership.

Con: risk of doing it too early, before a culture of knowledge sharing and leadership is present, making the CKO powerless.

¥ The knowledge steward

Pro: provides minimal, but ongoing, support to knowledge users in the "how" of KM.

Con: position is most precarious and most opportunistic, usually having fallen into the role.