How Often to Run AQIs?

[SuzyH_]

What is best practice for running AQIs?  Do you run an AQI on every new article or should you perform them randomly?  Do your knowledge managers perform AQIs or your ownership groups?  Thanks.

[David Kay · Accepted solution]

The Article Quality Index process (now called the Content Standard Checklist to better reflect its scope) is designed as a sampling technique.  In KCS, you wouldn't license someone unless you were confident they could create articles that followed the Content Standard essentially all of the time, so the AQI / Content Standard Checklist is a spot check to confirm that licensed people are keeping up the good work.  If there are misses, that's an opportunity for coaching.  In theory, someone could not follow the Content Standard so flagrantly that they might lose their license, but this should (almost?) never happen in real life.

Checking every new article is an awful lot like a review queue, which we work hard to avoid in KCS.  In newer implementations, maybe check 2-3 articles / licensed person / month; in more mature organizations, you can dial that down to quarterly, unless there's someone you need to keep a close eye on.

In KCS, the AQI / Content Standard Checklist is evaluated by a coach.  If something needs to be addressed, the coach will do that, so it makes sense for them to do the check.  Things can get more complicated in an outsourced environment, where you generally need to check the checkers...but this response is already long enough!

[Kim27]

Hi, everything that David said below, plus here's the link to the content health section of the KCS practice guide. 

As for how many, I would look to call quality monitoring standards for guidance and then go up/down from there depending on your need. Quality monitoring amounts fall into one of two buckets - a set number per person, generally 10, or a percentage of interactions (calls, chats, tickets). This could be anywhere from 5-10 percent (or more thanks to AI). 

You can use a formula based on:

How many people will be completing the AQI? 

On average, how many articles are getting created each month?

How long does it take to do the AQI and the coaching? 

Do the math? # of articles created/updated x how long it takes to do AQI/# of people (or hours committed to AQI

In addition, you may want to review more articles from newer people to the role but continue to spot-check those who are consistent (we get lazy, it's human nature). 

[Lori1]

Our approach is a little different as we did not leverage AQIS when we first implemented. Now, as we follow a thorough evaluation of our Catalog and have made the necessary updates in content, format and style, we require that an AQI is done for every new article, because the checklist serves as a reminder of the criteria to be met for a quality article. We also require and AQI for any article rated poorly, to be used as a tool to assist with what may need to be improved, in tandem with any comments from the feedback submitter.