Spiceworks Community Digest: Knowledge sharing

The struggle to capture and share troubleshooting knowledge is universal, impacting small IT teams to large enterprises alike. Critical fixes and undocumented “hacks” often sit in people’s heads, old chat logs, or scattered files, leading to massive inefficiencies when that person is unavailable.

A recent discussion on the Spiceworks Community revealed core strategies that apply to every IT department looking to convert scattered knowledge into a unified, searchable resource.

Make the ticket the primary knowledge base

Stop treating your Help Desk/Service Desk platform as just a queue. It is the most effective place to store quick fixes because the context is already attached.

• whysoserious: “Think about what your team is already looking at… does your ticketing system have a Notes or Comments field? And is the system itself searchable? Because you can store your solutions there.”
• Son of Jor-El: “The biggest help is to document the solution in the ticket. Freshservice has a notes section that does not email or alert the person putting the ticket in. Then when another issue comes up that’s the same, they do a search and see the solution.”

Leverage the right tool for the right knowledge

IT departments often have structured systems (like SharePoint or Confluence) that are great for formal processes but terrible for finding that one quick fix. The best strategy is to use flexible tools for quick capture and structured tools for official policies, then link them together.

• TimJr: “I am using OneNote… the other techs are also using it now too!!… The other side benefit is OneNote search function, even picks out words in pictures, and it is quick fast!”
• scottdurbin-7xclao84: “We use OneNote to document procedures and incident resolution steps… This is the best option we have found to document infrequently used apps…”
• Ed Rubin: “Is your IT Glue linked to your ticketing system? Our ITG has tickets linked to device records so we can see stuff.”
• greenbj: The key is to cross-reference. In the ticket, “reference the document used”. That way, when an official doc changes, you only need to update it in one place.

Fix the process and culture

Even the best tools fail without cultural buy-in and clear ownership. This is about making documentation a required step, not an afterthought.

• greenbj: “Document the solutions – no matter how quick-and-dirty the solution or documentation thereof – in your documentation location/system.”
• J-Nonya: “So, unless your team keeps good notes, you probably need to have them manually create KB articles after every ticket that doesn’t already have one…until suddenly, everything has one!”

How are you preventing tribal knowledge from walking out the door? Join the conversation on Spiceworks!