What is "High Knowledge"?
"High knowledge" might well be the wrong phrase, but it's what we're going with until someone points us to a better one. It means, to us, that the knowledge important to the company isn't stuck in some ephemeral temporary storage system (like a brain), inaccessible to the majority of the company. It means we aim to document processes and principles, and ensure that anybody with the requisite skills could potentially pick up a task in the company and not find themselves stuck because some key information isn't available to them.
General Principles
- If something is not written down in a place where others in the company can retrieve it, read it and understand it, it does not exist.
- In order for something to be retrievable, it must be in an accessible system where somebody is likely to look for it. A note explaining a change to some code is appropriate to have in a commit log message in BitBucket. A note explaining why a customer was given a refund is not appropriate in the same location.
- In order for something to be readable, it needs to be in an appropriate format. A logo design file in .xar format is no use to someone without XaraX, for example. A guide to uploading cheat sheets is no good if it's written in Hausa and nobody else speaks Hausa.
- In order for something to be understandable, it cannot rely on uncommon information or highly contextual history. If context is important, include it or link to it.
Specific Guidance
We are working on adding specific guidance and examples for this, as well as expanding on the thoughts above.
