2. Knowledge Management
Knowledge management enables the knowledge sharing
between people, where one person transfers their
knowledge to another one.
Support:
• Knowledge Management Strategy
(Hansen et al., 1999)
• Knowledge Management System
(Davenport & Prusak, 1998)
2
3. The KiWi Project
• Title: Knowledge in a Wiki
• Study the possibilities of a semantic wiki in
knowledge management.
3
4. Project Knowledge Management
• Case with business partner: Logica
– Providing IT & business solutions
– ca. 800 IT & Software specialists in DK
• Issues regarding knowledge management in the
case company
– Analyze
– Address
Research Question:
How can IT systems support knowledge management in
software development?
4
5. Action Design Research (ADR)
• Outlined by Sein et al. (2011)
– Method of 4 stages
• Dual process
– Support practitioners in application domain
– Forming theory to be added to body of knowledge
• Ensemble view of IT artefacts
5
7. Ensemble View of IT Artefacts
• Traditionally: Focus on IT artefact
• Ensemble view includes e.g.
– interaction with people
– embedding in context
7
8. My ADR
Data collection
fed from:
– Ensemble view
– Context
– Design process
8
9. Data Collection
• Documents from the case company
• Interviews
– Project visits
– Part of final evaluation phase
• Meetings
– Observations
– Participants
9
10. Data Analysis
• On-going process
• Important aspect of shaping process
• Feeding back into design process (stage 3)
10
12. Isolated Islands of Knowledge
• Strong project-orientation isolates
projects/project knowledge from one another
• Problems:
– Projects internally encapsulate knowledge, which is
created through project work (A1)
– Finding experts within company is difficult (A2)
– Employees do not share their knowledge with people
from other projects (A3)
– Documentation of project work is often inconsistent
or incomplete (A4)
12
13. Inadequate Bridging of Knowledge
• Bridging of the knowledge isolation is not
successfully implemented
• Problems:
– Process descriptions are too complex and
numerous (B1)
– Communication between process designers and
process executors is difficult to establish (B2)
– Documentation provided by projects is not
connected (B3)
13
14. ADR 2: BIE Circles
• Through constant iteration of BIE circles
– Iterative approach
– Consecutive phases
– Continuously applied
• Outcome: Design
– Based on 4 design ideas
14
15. Knowledge Management Strategy
Codification Personalization
• People to documents • Person to person
• Similarity-based • Goal-oriented
• Competitive strategy: • Competitive strategy:
Specialization in a Customized & unique
certain field solutions
• System support: Heavy • System support: Moderate
– Archive – Facilitate conversations
– Search
15
16. The Strategies
• Focus on one strategy only, reflecting the
competitive strategy.
• Utilize the other strategy to support
– In a 80-20 share
16
18. Design Idea 1
Supporting the two organizational layers
with different knowledge management
strategies: The management layer follows a
codification strategy and the development
layer the personalization.
18
19. Connecting the Layers
Project managers are part of both layers
– Reporting project status to management
– Applying knowledge from management layer in
development layer
19
20. Design Idea 2
Connecting the two organizational layers in
order to establish and support knowledge
sharing between them.
20
21. Supporting the Layers
Design Idea 3:
Utilizing a wiki in order to support the personalization
strategy within the development layer.
Design Idea 4:
Utilizing a project management system (PMS) in order
to support the codification strategy within the
management layer.
PMS
Wiki 21
24. Final Evaluation: Settings
• User test in usability lab
– 2 test users
– 3 iterations
• Procedure
– Follow use cases
– Interview
• Focus:
– Usefulness
– Not usability
24
25. Final Evaluation: Results
• Poor usability
• Improved information access
• Processes easier to follow than to violate
• Systems address issues and provide solution
25
26. ADR 3: Reflecting and Learning
Research Question:
How can IT systems support knowledge
management in software development?
• KiWi systems support knowledge
management for case company.
• Design ideas are contribution to the
body of knowledge
26
27. Contribution: Design Idea 1
”Multiple strategies through layers”
• Division of problems reflects layers:
– Development → Isolated islands of knowledge
– Management → Inadequate bridging of knowledge
• Extending theory on strategies:
– Acknolowging best fitting strategy in layer
– More fine grained choice
– 2 strategies in the same organization
• Perspectives of knowledge (Alavi & Leidner, 2001)
– Context dependend
– Predominant ones differ between layers
27
28. Contribution: Design Idea 2
”Connecting the layers”
• Addresses problems with connection:
– B2, feedback circle. Focus: People.
– B3, connected documentation. Focus: Strategies
• Aspects of knowledge management in software
development (Rus & Lindvall, 2002)
– Not equally spread in organization, yet supported
• Linking strategies to modes of knowledge creation
(Nonaka, 1994)
• Extension to Experience Factory (Basili, 1989)
– Enabling personalization
28
29. Contribution: Design Idea 3
”Wiki for personalization”
• Addresses different problems, because
– Centralized system with easy access for everyone
– Support for collaboration and communication
• Linking personalization to informal knowledge base
(Davenport & Prusak, 1998)
• Personalized experience factory (Basili, 1989)
– Not: People to system, system to people (indirect)
– But: People through system to people (direct)
• IT support in personalization (Hansen et al., 1999)
– 20% codification
– Wiki is also: IT support to connect people
29
30. Contribution: Design Idea 4
”Project management system for codification”
• PMS necessity for case company and many
other organizations
• Addresses problem of connecting
documentation (B3)
• Linking codification to structured knowledge
base (Davenport & Prusak, 1998)
30
31. Contribution: KiWi Systems
• Design ideas cannot be seen isolated only
• All problems are addressed
• Layered approach to focus on different strategies
(Hansen et al., 1999)
• Implementation to knowledge sharing approach
outlined by (Alavi & Leidner, 2001)
• Extension to experience factory (Basili, 1989)
– No separation between project work and knowledge base
• Focus on social aspects, not IT (Kautz & Thaysen, 2001)
– IT is part of social aspect
31
36. Bibliography
• Maryam Alavi and Dorothy E. Leidner. Review: Knowledge Management and
Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues.
MIS Quarterly, 25(1):107-136, 2001.
• Victor R. Basili. Software Development: A Paradigm for the Future. In Proceedings
of the 13th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference
(COMPSAC'89), 1989.
• Thomas H. Davenport and L. Prusak. Working Knowledge: How Organizations
Manage What They Know. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 1998.
• Morten T. Hansen, Nitin Nohria, and Thomas Tierney. What's Your Strategy for
Managing Knowledge? Harward Business Review, 77(2):106-116, 1999.
• Karlheiz Kautz and Kim Thaysen. Knowledge, learning and IT support in a small
software company. Journal of Knowledge Management, 5(4):349-357, 2001.
• Ikujiro Nonaka. A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation.
Organization Science, 5:14-37, 1994.
• Ioana Rus and Mikael Lindvall. Knowledge Management in Software Engineering.
IEEE Software, 19(3):26-38, June 2002.
• Maung K. Sein, Ola Henfridsson, Sandeep Purao, Matti Rossi, and Rikard Lindgren.
Action Design Research. MIS Quarterly, 35(1):37-56, 2011.
36
Notes de l'éditeur
EU founded FP7 Project7 partners from 4 countries
Like Design ResearchCharacteristic
3. Reflects on 1 & 2 in parallelContributions to body of knowledgecanbeidentifiedResearch processcanbeadjusted4. No directinteraction with projectworkSharingfindingsMakingthemapplicable for future use
Traditionally: In Design Science
Traditionalareas of research: Design, Data Collection, Data analysis
Identifiedknowledge management issues from case company.
Following coversresults of all 3 phases.First: Detour. KM Strategies
KM Strategy has to fit the competitivestrategy!
Reasons forthatarehistoryCMM
Codifiedknowledge in form of processesProblems show thatproject managers areoverwhelmed by work. Support neccessary!
Making the life of a project managereasier
Making the life of a project managereasier
To gather more dataVeryfocussedTest users: Experienced professionals, representatives for company and rolesEnsemble view: Right people/scenario/data
Perspectivesinfluence km approach and systemPerspectivescan’tbeseparated from eachothertotally. Depending on contextdifferentperspectivesapply (A&L).Design ideas set focus, confirming A&L
Aspects:Core software developmentactivitiesProduct & projectmemoryLearning & improvementNonaka: Combination!
Project management system => Enterprise systemContributionlimited: Traditional approach