Understanding and Improving Knowledge Flow in Software Organizations – Year two

Software engineering practitioners recognize that good documentation and effective knowledge sharing are critical to the success of a project and also to developer productivity. Yet, writing and maintaining documentation is often an afterthought for software engineering teams. What is more, managing knowledge or spending time to share information with others is typically not part of the reward structure for software developers, leading them to give it a low priority. This causes breakdowns in the flow of knowledge, duplication of effort, and reinvention of workarounds.
Microsoft builds complex software products and its engineers use a variety of tools during development. This project aims to identify the root cause of low satisfaction with knowledge flow by studying developers’ information search and retrieval habits when solving problems, and how they perceive information management and sharing. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Margaret-Anne Storey

Student:

Partner:

Microsoft Canada

Discipline:

Computer science

Sector:

Information and Communications Technology; Technology; Public Service, Policy, and Governance

University:

University of Victoria

Program: