a taxonomy and survey of experience bases and their use

1

A Taxonomy and Survey of Experience Bases and their

UseTorgeir Dingsøyr

Department of Computer and Information Science

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

E-mail: dingsoyr@idi.ntnu.no

Presentation at the ISERN 2001 meeting, 20-22 August, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

2

3

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

D o

C heck

Act

4

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

5

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

6

Tacit and Explicit Knowledge

Externalization

Internalization Combination

Socialization

Tac

itE

xpli

cit

Tacit Explicit

Nonaka & Takeuchi: The Knowledge Creating Company, Oxford University Press, 1995

7

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)

8

Knowledge Management

S tr a te g y

Goals and a way toachieve them

P r o c e s s e s

M ethods to m anagetacit and explicit

knowledge

T o o ls

Infrastructure forexplicit knowledge

+ +

9

10

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.

11

Overview of Intranet

• Knowledge Marked - Overview of knowledge resources.• Project Guide - Process guide.• Competence Blocks - Overview and adm. of internal courses.• Skills Manager - Profiles of employee skills.• WoX - Knowledge repository• Product Idea Café - Discussion forum to promote innovation.• Software Tools - Lists of available tools.• Employees - List of employees with location, phone #...• Processes - List of processes in the company.• Projects - Profiles of ongoing and finished projects.• Finance - Financial reports• Fun and reference - Web museum, quiz...

12

13

Case StudiesWhat 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

14

Case Studies

What the claimed benefits were:• Lower development costs?• Higher software quality?• Better work environment?

15

Strategy

Set up a separate organisation which collected anddistributed experience.

NASA SEL

What did they do?CompanyPersonalization? Quantitative? Qualitative?

Yes Yes

Daim ler ChryslerCreated three experience factories in three differentcom pany departm ents.

YesYesYes

Ericsson Software Technology

Set up new organisational roles to increase oralcom m unication of experience.

Yes Yes

Australian Telecom Com pany

Collected ex isting explicit inform ation regarding softwaredevelopm ent and m ade it searchable.

Yes

ICL High Perform ance System s

Introduced an Intranet-based system with an "engineeringknowledge database"

Yes

ICL F inland Made an Intranet-based system with three structural layers. Yes Yes

sd&mSet up a knowledge m anagem ent group and Intranetsystem .

Yes Yes

Knowledge M anagement Approach

Telenor Telecom Software

Made an expert system based on own em pirical data foreffort estim ation and risk m anagem ent, and m odified roles.

YesYes Yes

16

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.

17

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

18

19

Reported Benefits

Reduced num ber of defects, reduced software productioncosts, increased use.

NASA SEL

What was the effect?CompanyDeveloper

satisfaction?Lower cost? Higher quality?

Yes Yes

Daim ler ChryslerThe case gives no inform ation on the effect for thecom pany.

Ericsson Software Technology

The com pany claim s that the initiative was "m ore v aluable"than a database and m easurem ent-approach.

Australian Telecom Com pany

Good acceptance of product am ongst users. Yes

ICL High Perform ance System s

A perception that it has facilitated a "new m ode of working" Yes

ICL F inlandSav ed tim e, because it is easier to f ind docum ents. Easierto learn new project m em bers about project work.

Yes Yes

sd&m Prev ious problem s due to rapid growth hav e dim inished. Yes

Reported benefit

Telenor Telecom Software

The com pany indicates that estim ation accuracy hasim proved, and focus on risk m anagem ent has increased.

Yes

20

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!

21

Appendix: How sure can we be?

• NASA SEL Lessons learned• Daimler Chrysler Lessons learned• Telenor Telecom Software Lessons learned• Ericsson Lessons learned• An Australian Telecom Company Assertion• ICL High Performance Systems Lessons

learned• ICL Finland Lessons learned• Sd&m Lessons learned

Most of the studies are done just after introducing a new ”program”

22

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