Raising the importance of Knowledge

[DavidReynolds]

In a company of more than 1,000 employees, i am the only one whose sole focus is knowledge. I create new articles that help end users resolve technical issues when I find topics that require them. However, I wrote more than 1,000 articles in the past five years so I now spend most of my time updating them.

Here's where I can use your suggestions: There are only two people, both of whom are senior managers, that can approve these updates. I currently have more than 120 waiting for approval. How can I emphasize the importance of getting these articles reviewed and approved? I can live with 10, maybe up to 40 articles, in review, but not this many.

What have you done in similar circumstances?

Thanks for sharing. Everything helps.

Currently at least 10 percent of the main knowledge base is inaccurate.

[Kieran Anson]

Hi,

As a solution architect I would have a frank conversation on what benefit the approval is providing and identify the value, risk mitigation, and cost of having it. 

Reflecting that back to the decision makers can aid in the importance of retaining or removing the bottleneck rather than an emotional frustration.....as much as that should be sufficient.

What value is the approval providing? Or is it an unnecessary point of friction and bureaucracy?

[DavidReynolds]

I'm a technical writer, not a Technical Support Technician. My background is in writing, not diagnosing and repairing computer issues. The approval process allows a manager with extensive technical support knowledge to review these user-facing articles and spot errors, including omissions, that I missed.

Any friction is probably caused by the time it takes one of these managers to review the articles. That is time away from their other projects.

I doubt that this requirement justifies adding headcount because it is such a small niche need.