Best Practice

SABP-A-079 30 October 2017

Communities of Practice (CoP)
Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee

Contents
1 Overview ................................................................ 2
1.1 Scope............................................................... 2
1.2 Disclaimer ........................................................ 2
1.3 Intended Audience ........................................... 2
1.4 Accountability ................................................... 2
2 Conflicts and Deviations ......................................... 3
3 References ............................................................. 3
4 Terminology............................................................ 3
4.1 Acronyms ......................................................... 3
4.2 Definitions ........................................................ 3
5 Instructions ............................................................. 3
5.1 Activating a COP.............................................. 3
5.2 Deactivating a COP ......................................... 4
5.3 Selecting a COP Leader .................................. 4
5.4 Selecting COP SMEs ....................................... 4
5.5 COP Members ................................................. 4
5.6 Customizing/Maintaining COP ......................... 4
5.7 COP Performance ............................................ 5
5.8 Data Classification ........................................... 5
5.9 Engineering Service Request (ESR) ................ 5
5.10 Rewarding Top Contributors ............................ 5
6 Maintaining a COP ................................................. 5
7 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) ........................ 6
8 Recommended Roles and Responsibilities ............ 7
Revision Summary ........................................................ 8

Previous Issue: New Next Planned Update: 30 October 2027

Contacts: Almonzer, Amjad W., Dweib, Mahmoud A. Page 1 of 8
©Saudi Aramco 2017. All rights reserved.

Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-079
Issue Date: 30 October 2017
Next Planned Update: 30 October 2027 Communities of Practice (CoP)

1 Overview

Communities of Practice (CoP) are groups of people who share and learn from one
another face-to-face and/or virtually. They hold a common interest in a body of
knowledge and are driven by the Corporate Knowledge Management (KM) vision and
mission to share lessons learned, experiences, insights, templates, tools, and best
practices.

Corporate KM Vision
To grow and maintain the corporate knowledge by creating a collaborative and learning
organization that would increase Saudi Aramco intellectual capital, improve
performance, and achieve excellence.

Corporate KM Mission
To capture, organize, disseminate, and reuse all Saudi Aramco knowledge and make it
easily accessible to the right people at the right time.

1.1 Scope

This document provides guidelines on how to create or delete a CoP, maintain

an active CoP, best practices on how to efficiently manage a CoP, and defines
stake holder’s roles and responsibilities.

1.2 Disclaimer

This Best Practice is intended only to provide guidelines for Saudi Aramco
employees and shall not be considered as a replacement for the Mandatory Saudi
Aramco Engineering Requirements.

1.3 Intended Audience

This best practice is for department managers, Knowledge Officers, Knowledge

Coordinators, CoP Leaders and SMEs, and any Saudi Aramco employee
interested in participating in a Community of Practice.

1.4 Accountability

A CoP is meant to serve as an educational forum and knowledge sharing portal,

not for expert ruling on technical issues or matters. Therefore, it is the
responsibility of the end user to verify accuracy and applicability of the content
before using or relying on the information to make business decisions.
Although a CoP is a knowledge-sharing forum, the intent is that individuals and
SMEs are accountable for the responses in a similar fashion to the response

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 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-079
Issue Date: 30 October 2017
Next Planned Update: 30 October 2027 Communities of Practice (CoP)

provided on subjects in e-mails and other correspondence. Conflicts should be

resolved through the SMEs and standard committees.
2 Conflicts and Deviations

If there is a conflict between this Best Practice and other standards and specifications,
please contact the EK&RD Coordinator.

3 References
Knowledge Management Policy, INT-16

4 Terminology

4.1 Acronyms
CoP Community of Practice
EK&RD Engineering Knowledge & Resources Division
ESR Engineering Services Request
KB Knowledge Base
KM Knowledge Management
KO Knowledge Officer
KPI Key Performance Indicator
KS Knowledge Sharing
OE Operational Excellence
SME Subject Matter Expert
TKSU Technical Knowledge Sharing Unit

4.2 Definitions
ShareK Workspace: An online platform where employees may collaborate
and store documents.
Knowledge Management: The process of creating, sharing, reusing, and
managing the knowledge and information of an organization.

5 Instructions

5.1 Activating a CoP

A CoP may be created if a topic or subject is not addressed by an existing CoP

and if there are a minimum of 50 potential members.
1. Contact the department Knowledge Office (KO) to request that a CoP can be
created.

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 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-079
Issue Date: 30 October 2017
Next Planned Update: 30 October 2027 Communities of Practice (CoP)

2. Obtain department manager approval.

3. Department manager assigns a CoP Leader.
4. CoP Leader communicates the request to EK&RD, Corporate Knowledge
Management Team.

5.2 Deactivating a CoP

A CoP may be deactivated for one of the following reasons:

 The number of active members is below 20.
 The KPI falls below target for 6 months or more.
 The CoP is idle for 3 months.

5.3 Selecting a CoP Leader

CoP leader should have the following criteria:

 Subject Matter Expert (SME) known in the specific CoP field
 Should have a minimum of 3 years of service with Saudi Aramco
 Should have achieved a minimum PMP rating of E in the last 2 years

5.4 Selecting CoP SMEs

SMEs of a CoP should be identified as such and differentiated from regular

members. SME should have the following criteria:
 Recognized SME in the subject of the CoP where he is serving as SME
 Minimum of 1 year service as an SME in the same field

5.5 CoP Members

Membership in any CoP is open and every employee is encouraged to join any
CoP he/she wishes with no limitations. However, regular members should be
distinguished from the CoP SMEs.

5.6 Customizing CoP

CoPs do not have to follow a standard design for their main page; they may be
customized. Recommendations for customizing CoP pages are:
 The Discussion list is the core of any CoP and must be displayed on the
main page.

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 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-079
Issue Date: 30 October 2017
Next Planned Update: 30 October 2027 Communities of Practice (CoP)

 CoP leaders name and picture must be visible on the main page for
members’ information.
 Statistics (members, discussions, and replies) should be on the main page.
 Top Contributors should be visible on the main page.
 Libraries, lists and other created applications must be visible either on the
main page or added to the Quick Launch on the left pane.
 CoP leader to set up alerts to notify all CoP members by default.
 Add a disclaimer on the main page to clarify to users intent of the CoP
(unofficial consultation/exchange of knowledge)
 Keep CoP content current and relevant to the subject.
 Minimize the use of the CoP for document storage.
 CoP membership should be set to auto accept.

5.7 CoP Performance

CoPs performance is monitored using KPIs as outlined in 6 Maintaining a CoP.

KPIs should be reported monthly.

5.8 Data Classification

All CoP information should be classified as Company General Use or below.

5.9 Engineering Service Request (ESR)

ESRs on the CRM system can be shared with CoPs. This enhancement to the
ESR allows SMEs to share recommendations that are delivered using ESR with
relevant CoP.

5.10 Rewarding Top Contributors

Recognizing and rewarding top contributors is encouraged; however, it is up to

the CoP leader and sponsoring department to administer its own recognition
program.

6 Maintaining a CoP

The following requirements should be fulfilled to keep a CoP active:

 Conduct CoP awareness sessions regularly.
 Store all relevant technical documents to the corresponding CoP (i.e., technical

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 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-079
Issue Date: 30 October 2017
Next Planned Update: 30 October 2027 Communities of Practice (CoP)

reports, presentations, articles, studies, proceedings, etc.).

 Store relevant templates, best practice, installation and construction photos and
drawings, new technology items in industry, site visit reports, etc.
 Include participation in a CoP as part of an employee’s PMP.
 Recognize active members.
 Align the Operational Excellence knowledge management process with CoP.
 Set internal goals for CoP members.
 Monitor and report CoP engagement and activeness KPIs.
 Encourage SMEs to advertise the CoP in their e-mail signature.

7 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) was introduced to activate and drive CoP
performance based on the number of documents and discussion views and the number
of active members on the CoP. The KPI will be reported monthly and annually.

The KPI mathematical formulas are:

CoP Activeness Index Actual views

= ∗ 100%
Expected views

# of Documents views + # of Discussion views

= ∗ 100%
(# of members + # of unique visitors) ∗ N

CoP Members Engagement = Percentage of people who posted documents or discussions

# of members who posted documents or discussions

= ∗ 100%
Total number of members

CoP Activeness + CoP Member Engagement

CoP Index =
2

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 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-079
Issue Date: 30 October 2017
Next Planned Update: 30 October 2027 Communities of Practice (CoP)

8 Recommended Roles and Responsibilities

Title or Organization
Action or Task
Accountable
 Endorse overall direction and priorities for CoP
 Ensure CoP goals align with business goals and objectives
CoP Sponsor:  Regularly track CoP progress by allocating time for updates at
Division Head or department communication meetings
higher  Advocate for resources and funding provided to CoP
 Assign primary and backup CoP moderators
 Establish a department-level CoP recognition program
 Ensure SMEs review submitted documents
 Encourage peer discussions on the CoP
 Post all related announcements/events on the CoP
 Check and update site content regularly
 Remind SMEs of all pending questions/documents
CoP Leader: Domain  Escalate cases of long pending user questions/documents to
Subject Matters the next level of authority
Expert (SME)  Select the most active CoP participants (users and experts) for
recognition
 Recommend and facilitate opportunities for face-face
collaboration between users and experts
 Report feedback, progress, support needs to sponsor and ES
Knowledge Management team
 Provide monthly progress report to sponsor
 Jointly develop and maintain CoP charter and agreement
 Create the CoPs with requested structure and user privileges
and support knowledge sharing features within with existing IT
infrastructure
 Conduct awareness campaigns across the company (including
CoP KM Team: ES plants) to promote CoPs
Knowledge  Train and support moderators and experts assigned to the
Management Team CoPs
 Track and report CoP utilization and activities
 Recommend recognition and rewarding mechanisms
 Conduct and share findings from studies/research related to
success with CoP
 Report all unanswered questions to CE on a weekly basis
Knowledge Officer  Communicate KM related matters to the organization’s CoP
(KO) leaders

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Saudi Aramco: Company General Use

 Document Responsibility: Knowledge Management Standards Committee SABP-A-079
Issue Date: 30 October 2017
Next Planned Update: 30 October 2027 Communities of Practice (CoP)

Revision Summary
30 October 2017 New Saudi Aramco Best Practice that provides guidelines on how to create or delete a
Community of Practice, the governance of a CoP, and recommendations on how to keep a
CoP active.

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