Part 1 of this series introduced the idea that a community of practice (CoP) is group of people who are bound together by similar interests and expertise . CoPs are an extension of the blended learning strategy being adopted by many organizations that combines formal, informal and social approaches to learning. Like service management, communities have lifecycles – they emerge, they grow, and over time they become institutionalized. Also like service management, the plan-do-check-act cycle can be applied to each of these stages. Plan involves identifying the audience for the CoP and defining its purpose. It is also critical to ensure the needs and goals of its members are understood and that its purpose and goals are tied to the vision, mission and values of the greater organization. For example, you could have a service management CoP that brings together all of the practitioners in your organization, or you could have CoPs that focus on individual lifecycle stages but occasi