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As Communities of Practice (CoP) develop and identify new knowledge and best practices, efforts must be made to capture and retain the information. In addition, the information should be made readily available as a resource for other CoP members and/or the organization as a whole.

All new knowledge, or best practices developed by the CoP should be documented with at least the following information. This tool is vital if the CoP is to be successful as a knowledge transfer model. Documenting the entire process allows other members to continue to research the issue(s) and better understand the topic(s). The idea is to have sufficient information to defend the best practice solution.

Document the following at each CoP session:

• Date of session
• Point of contact (name, organization or unit involved and contact information for members of the CoP)
• Problem statement
• List of members who participated in development of best practice methods
• Background information (research and significant findings and root cause analysis)
• Solution agreed upon
• Alternatives solutions considered and an explanation of why they were not selected

Used by permission.  Department of the NAVY Knowledge Management.