scope:

The present guideline tends to help those, who are assigned to introduce, implement and establish knowledge management in engineering. It is authored by practitioners from the various engineering disciplines, and therefore offers a practically oriented introduction into the basic challenges of knowledge management, which the persons responsible might

have to face. Furthermore the general approach to this challenges is described here.

The present guideline is restricted on the information relevant for implementing knowledge management successfully. Hence, for example, only one definition of knowledge management is given, for further discussion see further reading.

This guideline gives attention to the following pivotal questions:

• Which typical challenges have to be met regarding knowledge management?
• Which kind of approach might be the best in practice?
• What has to be considered in knowledge management projects?
• Which questions have to be discussed in the runup to a project?

The guideline is written in a compact form, easy to read for engineers. It has to be seen as a complement to the existing literature regarding knowledge management specific to engineers.

This guideline overviews the subject of knowledge management, explains its basic elements in engineering and describes the procedure of implementation and operation of corresponding concepts within a company. Further parts within the guideline series VDI 5610 are intended, concentrating more detailed on the challenges and solutions in the various disciplines of engineering (e. g. "Development and design", "Production and operation", "Maintenance and customer service").