Software Process Improvement in Small Organizations

In general, software process improvement entails significant benefits such as increased software product quality, decreased time and development cost, and decreased risks. To obtain these, organizations must apply knowledge management because the identification of new knowledge is considered key to success when improving software processes. Existing knowledge is, however, difficult to find, and when found, it is often difficult to reuse in practice. This is due to the fact that a considerable part of the knowledge that is useful for executing software processes is tacit and not all of it can be captured and made explicit. The purpose of this chapter is to present a framework for software process improvement based on the enrichment of organizational knowledge by means of the acquisition of tacit knowledge from individuals working in different teams and environments. The framework includes the specification of roles, processes, and tools, and is based on a process asset library and the introduction of configuration and change management mechanisms.

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Managing Tacit Knowledge to Improve Software Processes

Computer Systems and Software Engineering ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-3923-0.ch064 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 1567-1585

Author(s):

Alberto Heredia ◽

Javier García-Guzmán ◽

Fuensanta Medina-Domínguez ◽

Arturo Mora-Soto

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Change Management ◽

Tacit Knowledge ◽

Process Improvement ◽

Software Process ◽

Software Process Improvement ◽

Development Cost ◽

Software Product ◽

New Knowledge ◽

Software Processes

In general, software process improvement entails significant benefits such as increased software product quality, decreased time and development cost, and decreased risks. To obtain these, organizations must apply knowledge management because the identification of new knowledge is considered key to success when improving software processes. Existing knowledge is, however, difficult to find, and when found, it is often difficult to reuse in practice. This is due to the fact that a considerable part of the knowledge that is useful for executing software processes is tacit and not all of it can be captured and made explicit. The purpose of this chapter is to present a framework for software process improvement based on the enrichment of organizational knowledge by means of the acquisition of tacit knowledge from individuals working in different teams and environments. The framework includes the specification of roles, processes, and tools, and is based on a process asset library and the introduction of configuration and change management mechanisms.

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Knowledge Management in Software Process Improvement

Knowledge Engineering for Software Development Life Cycles ◽

10.4018/978-1-60960-509-4.ch015 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 273-288 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Shuib Bin Basri ◽

Rory V. O’Connor

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Management ◽

Software Development ◽

Process Improvement ◽

Software Process ◽

Software Process Improvement ◽

Management Style ◽

Software Development Process ◽

Staff Members ◽

Informal Environment ◽

Small Team

This chapter discusses knowledge management (KM) aspects of how software process and software process improvement (SPI) is practiced within very small entities (VSEs) in the context of Irish software development industry. In particular, this study is concerned with the process of software development knowledge management in supporting the SPI. In order to understand the support process, the authors of this chapter have studied how KM processes are practiced within VSEs which includes communication, learning, sharing, and documentation process. This study also focuses in detail on the issues of the knowledge atrophy problem in VSEs. The findings explain how KM has been practiced and influenced the software development process and process improvement in VSEs. This result indicates that KM processes in VSEs are being undertaken in a very informal manner and also in indirect way. This is due to a small team size, autonomous working and macro-management style and caused VSEs to be more informal in their KM processes specifically and SPI generally. In addition, the results have indicated that the informal environment and culture helped VSEs to easily create and share knowledge between staff members and also assisted VSEs to mitigate the knowledge atrophy problem in their organization.

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