Download A Taxonomy and Survey of Experience Bases, and their use

A Taxonomy and Survey of
Experience Bases and their Use
Torgeir Dingsøyr
Department of Computer and Information Science
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
(NTNU)
E-mail: [email protected]
Presentation at the ISERN 2001 meeting, 20-22
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Why is this interesting to us?
• Software engineering is knowledge-intensive
work!
• Many companies have invested in knowledge
management tools, or developed their own.
• Making use of past experience is a natural task in
quality improvement.
Plan
Act
Do
Check
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What is the purpose of the
study?
Common problems with computer systems for
knowledge
management:
Usage
Time
Why is this?
• No culture or environment for sharing knowledge?
• Tools are
• Not useful
• Not taylored
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Knowledge Management
• What is Knowledge?
• Tacit: hard to express.
• Explicit: can be expressed in words or writing.
• What is knowledge management?
• Different strategies for knowledge
management
• An example
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Tacit
Explicit
Tacit
Socialization
Externalization
Explicit
Tacit and Explicit Knowledge
Internalization
Combination
Nonaka & Takeuchi: The Knowledge Creating Company, Oxford University Press, 1995
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What is Knowledge
Management?
”to describe, organise, share and develop
knowledge”
”systematic management of knowledge-related
processes to create, build, collect, organise,
package, use and protect knowledge”
”a systematic process to achieve organisational
goals by collecting, creating and synthesising and
share information, insights and experience”
Bjørn Emil Madsen in Monica Rolfsen (ed.) Trendens Tyranni, Fagbokforlaget, 2000.
(From researchers on the KUNNE project (www.kunne.no) at Sintef Industrial
Management)
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Knowledge Management
Strategy
Goals and a way to
achieve them
Processes
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Methods to manage
tacit and explicit
knowledge
Tools
+
Infrastructure for
explicit knowledge
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An Example Intranet of a
medium-sized Company
• From a medium-sized company that develops
software.
• Approximately 150 employees.
• Consulting work is mostly done in-house.
• Internally developed Intranet-based ”corporate
memory” from 1997.
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Overview of Intranet
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Knowledge Marked
Project Guide
Competence Blocks
Skills Manager
WoX
Product Idea Café
Software Tools
Employees
Processes
Projects
Finance
Fun and reference
- Overview of knowledge resources.
- Process guide.
- Overview and adm. of internal courses.
- Profiles of employee skills.
- Knowledge repository
- Discussion forum to promote innovation.
- Lists of available tools.
- List of employees with location, phone #...
- List of processes in the company.
- Profiles of ongoing and finished projects.
- Financial reports
- Web museum, quiz...
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Case Studies
What was done?
• Found 8 articles on knowledge management initiatives,
mostly ”lessons learned”
• Literature study!
What the companies did:
• Strategy
– Codification? (increase externalization)
• Quantitative?
• Qualitative?
– Personalization? (increase socialization)
• Processes
– Reorganise?
• Tools
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Case Studies
What the claimed benefits were:
• Lower development costs?
• Higher software quality?
• Better work environment?
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Strategy
Knowledge Management Approach
Company
What did they do?
Personalization?
Quantitative?
Qualitative?
NASA SEL
Set up a separate organisation which collected and
distributed experience.
Yes
Yes
Daimler Chrysler
Created three experience factories in three different
company departments.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Telenor Telecom
Software
Made an expert system based on own empirical data for
effort estimation and risk management, and modified roles.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Ericsson Software
Technology
Set up new organisational roles to increase oral
communication of experience.
Yes
Australian Telecom
Company
Collected existing explicit information regarding software
development and made it searchable.
Yes
Yes
ICL High Performance Introduced an Intranet-based system with an "engineering
Systems
knowledge database"
Yes
ICL Finland
Made an Intranet-based system with three structural layers.
Yes
Yes
sd&m
Set up a knowledge management group and Intranet
system.
Yes
Yes
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Processes
• Developers should actively participate in
collecting, refining and distributing knowledge.
• Separate roles for knowledge management in five
companies.
• New activities like kick-off and touch-down
meetings in one company.
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Tools
• Intranet systems for knowledge repositories:
– Daimler Chrysler, both ICL departments, sd&m and also
at the Australian Telecom company.
• Profiles of skills, projects and customers:
– sd&m and ICL Finland
• Expert Systems:
– Telenor Telecom Software
• Guides to company work processes:
– ICL and Telenor Telecom Softwvare
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Reported Benefits
Reported benefit
Company
What was the effect?
NASA SEL
Reduced number of defects, reduced software production
costs, increased use.
Daimler Chrysler
The case gives no information on the effect for the
company.
Telenor Telecom
Software
The company indicates that estimation accuracy has
improved, and focus on risk management has increased.
Ericsson Software
Technology
The company claims that the initiative was "more valuable"
than a database and measurement-approach.
Australian Telecom
Company
Good acceptance of product amongst users.
Developer
satisfaction?
Lower cost?
Higher quality?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ICL High Performance
A perception that it has facilitated a "new mode of working"
Systems
Yes
ICL Finland
Saved time, because it is easier to find documents. Easier
to learn new project members about project work.
Yes
sd&m
Previous problems due to rapid growth have diminished.
Yes
Yes
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Conclusions
• Theory
– Most companies have a codification strategy,
but many also focus on personalization.
– Companies focus more on qualitative
knowledge than quantitative knowledge.
• Technology
– Low-tech Intranets are most widely used.
– High-tech tools not much in use.
• Practice
– Difficult to determine benefits!
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Appendix: How sure can we
be?
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NASA SEL
Daimler Chrysler
Telenor Telecom Software
Ericsson
An Australian Telecom Company
ICL High Performance Systems
learned
• ICL Finland
• Sd&m
Lessons learned
Lessons learned
Lessons learned
Lessons learned
Assertion
Lessons
Lessons learned
Lessons learned
Most of the studies are done just after introducing a new
”program”
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What is Explicit Knowledge?
Information use
type
Example/ explanation
Enlightment
Company-internal news.
Problem
understanding
To develop a better comprehension of a particular
problem.
Instrumental
Guidelines, templates
Factual
Billing rate, travel exprense rates
Confirmational
To verify other information
Projective
Forecasts, scenarios, estimates
Motivational
To sustain personal involvement.
Personal or Political
Develop relationships
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