So where do you put all the knowledge you collect?

The easiest place is documents. The problem with those, is that the more knowledge you document, the less likely people are to read them.

Today (another) argument I was involved in was regarding the use of dynamic/snapshot views in ClearCase. The methodology we have (due to change if I have a chance), is working with dynamic views. This document was written 3 years ago. Since then we learned that .Net doesn’t like it this way. So in the last year, the .Net developers started using snapshots.

Where is this information stored? currently in my head, and I pass it to developers that start using ClearCase with .Net. The thinking is that the more people know about, the knowledge will be “stored” as a group knowldge.

The argument was “Then why isn’t that documented?”. Opposite to the dark-side Gil, I contended that it would be a waste of time to document something no one actually reads. And then the fighters left the ring, each to his own corner.

If knowledge is never accessed, how do you know if it is really there?