Managing knowledge in a software organization

This paper explores the practical usage of insights on knowledge management (KM) to support innovation in a software organization. The organization has for some time engaged in software process improvement (SPI) initiatives to improve its operation. The paper applies two complementary approaches to KM, the codified and the personalized, to evaluate current KM practices and to improve its SPI practices. Based on the insights from the case we review key principles within SPI and evaluate the applied KM approaches. We conclude that it is advisable for SPI efforts to explicitly address KM issues. Each software organization has to find its own balance between personalized and codified approaches, this balance needs to be dynamically adjusted as the organization matures, and the adopted KM approach should differentiate between different types of SPI services.

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