About Knowledge Transfer Issue [duplicate]

Question

While I am leaving my current company, they have asked me to do a knowledge transfer. What should I do and what do I need to present to them?

Answer 1

We don't know anything about your job role or responsibilities, or your work areas. Ask you manager, they will be able to guide you.

In general, the knowledge transfer includes (but not limited to):

• The work you have done and currently doing.
• Any details about the generic access / login that you used as part of your job.
• Process and practices.
• Any recurring meeting / calls that you attend, and your replacement is also supposed to be aware of that.
• Other details about the repository, documentation / wiki, access requirement, HW/SW setup.

Answer 2

My question is while I am leaving my currently working company they ask for KT(knowledge transfer) know. What do I need to present them?

That depends on what the company needs. Sometimes, that is documentation. Sometimes, that is training your replacement. Often, it is both.

Ask your boss what would help them the most. Then be helpful.

Answer 3

I will tell you my experience when leaving my previous job. I knew very well, even before the company / boss said anything, that some knowledge transfer had to be done. Actually, I was proactive and I started the discussion with the boss, he did not have a chance to tell me that it has to be done.

We handled it in the following way:

1. I had a discussion with my boss about what information should be transferred (and to whom): projects, activities, statuses, open issues, tools, access rights needed to do the job, best practices, things to avoid - to minimize effort and avoid unneeded frustration...;
2. We refined and detailed the list of knowledge to be transferred, to make it most useful for the remaining colleagues.
3. I created a document where I explained everything that needed to be explained, topic by topic (including, screenshots, pictures, web/ network links, responsible persons...).
4. I clarified minor issues with the boss, as they appeared during document preparation.
5. I had meetings with the colleagues, to present them the document, explain them the information, and from where to get more info and support, when needed.
6. At the "end" we had a common meeting (me, boss, colleagues), to discuss the results of the knowledge transfer, and to make sure that all relevant information was covered.

Answer 4

I work in Software Engineering, the mileage may vary for other industries. But for this job, generally, if knowledge isn't already adequately shared on an ongoing basis, possibly through documentation processes, then the knowledge transfers on someone's way out aren't going to do much good. You can be proactive, and other answers here are giving suggestions on how to do that, but a lot of this information will be presented to people whose heads aren't into receiving that particular information at that time and will be lost on them. If there are any documents you had in mind writing already, but never got the time for, now's the time, and this could be a useful interpretation of the request. Otherwise, just make yourself available for whomever wants to pick your brain. Also, you've decided to leave, you are no longer committed, making you do knowledge transfer of things that are evidently not documented well to begin with, is probably an unreasonable expectation anyway. From my perspective, "doing knowledge transfer" is just a thing we tell each other in a situation like this, it just doesn't mean too much. (I'm generally a positive person, but yeah, quite cynical about "knowledge transfer" upon resignation.)

Answer 5

Ask them what information they need. It's their responsibility to figure that out, not yours.