Vocabulary is important, and it is a challenge as different organizations and industries use different terminology for similar things. For example, in tech support there are numerous terms used for the support event including incident, case, trouble ticket, call, or service request. In this guide we will use the term “incident.” We will use "knowledge worker" as the generic term for people involved in resolving issues and problem solving activities. In tech support the knowledge worker is often the Support Analyst: the folks in the support organization who solve customer issues. These people are also called support agents, support engineers, or customer support reps (CSR).
This guide uses the same terms as those found in the KCS v6 Practices Guide glossary. A few bear repeating:
Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) is a robust set of principles, practices, and techniques for creating, maintaining, and leveraging knowledge in an interactive environment. While KCS started out as one important element of an organization’s overall knowledge management strategy, KCS has evolved to become the knowledge management strategy for the whole organization. KCS seeks to reuse, improve, and - if it doesn't exist - create knowledge as a by-product of interaction. Just as the Agile development methodology has replaced the waterfall model in development organizations, KCS is replacing the waterfall model of content or documentation development. KCS is "agile knowledge management."
The KCS methodology is based on 25 years of academic research, experiences, and investment by the members of the Consortium for Service Innovation.
Knowledge is information upon which people can act. Knowledge is intangible. It can not be counted or measured in discreet terms, and it can not be measured at the point of creation or capture. Knowledge is measured at the point of value realization; it is measured by the value it creates for the audience it serves. Knowledge includes content and context.
KCS is based on the following characteristics of knowledge:
Knowledge is not pristine, perfect, or static; it is actually dynamic and quite messy. KCS allows us to capitalize on the collective experience of the organization and manage the risks associated with the dynamics of knowledge. This is what makes KCS so different from other traditional knowledge management (KM) or knowledge engineering practices. The traditional models are "knowledge from a few" for the use of many. KCS is knowledge from many for the use of many.