THE DIGITAL GOVERNANCE CASE FILES
True stories… or almost.
Situations inspired by real-life cases that shed light on the often-overlooked risks associated with digital assets, access, licenses, and responsibilities within organizations.
CASE FILE 005
When knowledge leaves the company
Everything worked perfectly… until the departure of the only person who knew how it worked.
An employee, manager, or collaborator leaves the company.
Up until then, everything was working normally. The platforms were configured, certain operations were carried out regularly, and problems were resolved quickly.
Then comes a very simple question:
" How did he do that? " Nobody knows exactly.
Over the years, this person had become the reference for certain operations: specific configurations, internal procedures, suppliers, automation, access, working methods or technical particularities.
The problem is not necessarily that the employee has left.
The problem is that the knowledge necessary for the organization to function is gone with him.
ASSET CONCERNED
Operational knowledge, procedures, configurations and digital documentation
GOVERNANCE ISSUE
Documentation, knowledge transfer and business continuity
GOVERNANCE FINDINGS
Operational knowledge is also an asset of the organization.
When an essential procedure relies exclusively on the memory or experience of a single person, the company creates what is commonly called a single point of failure .
Everything can function for years without incident.
The risk becomes visible when a person leaves the company, changes positions, becomes unavailable, or when a new supplier has to take over the file.
Effective governance does not seek to replace human expertise with documentation.
Rather, it ensures that the knowledge essential for the continuity of operations also belongs to the organization.
IDENTIFIED RISKS
Loss of critical knowledge
Methods, configurations or operational particularities may disappear with the departure of a person.
Interruption of operations
Some tasks may become difficult or impossible to perform.
Dependence on a key person
The organization depends on an individual rather than a reproducible process.
Errors during resumption
The successor sometimes has to rebuild procedures through trial and error.
Wasted time and increased costs
The company may need to use external resources to understand or rebuild its own environment.
Unknown configurations
Automations, integrations, or settings may exist without anyone knowing precisely why they were configured that way.
Security risk
Access, accounts or administrative privileges may be forgotten upon departure.
Difficult transition
Integrating a new employee or supplier becomes much longer and more complex.
RECOMMENDED MEASURES
Documenting critical procedures
Identify the essential operations and record enough information to allow their continuation by another person.
Identify key people
Identify the areas where only one person currently possesses the necessary knowledge.
Centralize the documentation
The procedures should not be scattered across emails, personal files, or individual notes.
Document important configurations
Systems, automations, integrations and specific parameters should be understandable without depending on their creator.
Plan a departure procedure
Any departure should trigger a review of access, responsibilities, documents and knowledge to be transferred.
Organize the transfer of knowledge
When possible, plan a structured transition period before departure.
Keep the documentation up to date
A procedure documented three years ago but now obsolete provides a false sense of security.
WHAT TO CHECK IN YOUR ORGANIZATION
☐ Are there operations that only one person knows how to perform?
☐ Are the main procedures documented?
☐ Is the documentation accessible to the organization?
☐ Are important platform configurations logged?
☐ Are the automations and integrations listed?
☐ Are the responsibilities associated with the different systems clearly assigned?
☐ Are administrator access rights known and documented?
☐ Is there a knowledge transfer procedure in place when an employee or supplier leaves?
☐ Could another person quickly take over essential operations?
☐ Are the access rights of the person leaving systematically reviewed and revoked when necessary?