Knowledge Management in Global Software Teams

Abstract

Information technology (IT) organizations, especially software development organizations, are knowledge-intensive firms where the knowledge is mainly embedded in human beings and is largely in the form of tacit knowledge. Managing knowledge in global software teams in very critical as knowledge is a source of competitive advantage for these organizations. They have adopted emergent team-based structures as a response to changing business needs and are globally distributed. Sharing of tacit knowledge requires more people-to-people interaction which is impossible in these organizations. Due to this reason, it is essential to manage certain critical knowledge during the progress of the projects related to achieving the performance goals and the learning goals to consistently sustain and improve project performance. This study identifies the following critical knowledge areas related to the learning goals: user requirements knowledge functional domain knowledge technical knowledge project status knowledge project experience knowledge. A five-layered knowledge management framework has been applied to model the software team knowledge. This model is suggested as a process approach to team knowledge management to strengthen knowledge management in software teams. As per the knowledge management framework, all the identified knowledge related to the project are not well managed. One of the reasons for not managing well a particular type of knowledge is the absence of knowledge management processes. The global software teams share knowledge through a virtual space as against real physical platform with proper IT infrastructure in place. Due to the distributed nature of the teams, rules, conventions, and sharing of norms is already put in place. It, thus, helps in managing project status knowledge, domain knowledge, and technical knowledge. It also promotes management of requirements knowledge and project experience knowledge. However, only ad hoc processes which are immature are in place to manage the knowledge areas. The tools of team knowledge management and leadership commitment are the next two layers of the model to manage the software team knowledge. This study summarizes the status of the following critical knowledge areas related to the learning goals: The most critical knowledge area is the user requirement knowledge. Though newer processes are introduced to manage the same, managing user requirements still remains a challenge for the members of the global software teams. Functional domain knowledge and technical knowledge are managed well by companies but technology updates have put pressure in identifying the gaps and bridging it during the project execution. Project status knowledge has been well managed in the global software teams with the help of formal procedures and documentation. The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) certification requirement of IT organizations is facilitating this knowledge management area. Capturing and reusing the project experience knowledge of the existing projects and clients is still an open issue. The layered knowledge management framework will help in implementing knowledge management processes for each critical knowledge area.