In the software industry, a critical factor in a project’s
success is raising productivity, and software development teams
must always consider its challenges. In today’s competitive
industry, the productivity of team members in software
development is a serious issue that attracts considerable attention.
Studies have been conducted on various aspects of team and
individual productivity; however, the literature still refers to a lack
of research into the impact of team awareness, observing that it is
an essential element of knowledge management in the project’s
development life cycle. This study takes up this point and presents
an actual software development case study to investigate the
impact of increasing knowledge and producing adequate
information on clients’ domain and business model on both team
productivity and that of each individual member. The study was
undertaken with two development teams over one month, each
receiving about 300 requirements. One of the teams was given
sufficient information on the client’s domain and background in
terms of its business model, while the other was given nothing
before it went to the client’s workplace, without any knowledge of
its domain. The results achieved were statistically significant,
showing better productivity among the team with the information,
with 261 of 300 requirements completed, whereas the other
completed just 107. The findings of this study will help software
research to focus both on the aspects of knowledge management
that relate to software development and on the correlation between
them. The study also supports software development project
managers to enhance the value of knowledge when they are
delivering training and to equate the time spent spreading
knowledge to giving team members adequate information about
the clients’ domains and business models. This will be reflected in
both the quality and productivity of the entire development
process.
Knowledge Management in Distributed Software Development Teams - Does Culture Matter?
