Knowledge creation through a project review process in software production

Abstract

The new era of ICT that can be seen as shorter time to market has created a stronger pressure on the software production. At the same time the fast growth of complexity and size of software have caused problems in quality, costs and schedule accuracy in software development. Traditionally, new methods and tools are considered to be a solution to these difficulties, but problems have not disappeared. A great problem has been and still is the inability of the organization to manage the software development process. The research carried out in a telecommunications company pays attention to the special characteristics of the software and the software process. In order to find proper solution for the case company the various methods of assessment and measurement were studied. The case itself produced a simple tested tool to improve the software process. A new approach to the review practice was created. The traditional way of making reviews in project work has been in finding errors in specifications, design, realization, integration, implementation and operations. The new approach is based on the view of sharing knowledge of the good practices in all phases of the project and creating a knowledge base of the organization in addition to the more conventional review objectives. The case showed measurable improvements in the software development process and also a creation and enhancement of the knowledge base of good practices in software development work.