Abstract
This paper establishes the incorporation of knowledge management techniques as a means to improve actual software process asset libraries. It presents how knowledge management contributes to the creation of a new generation of process libraries as repositories of knowledge as well as the mechanisms to allow the acquisition, storage, collaborating, sharing and distribution of knowledge related to the software development processes. It exposes aspects about organization and structure of this kind of digital libraries oriented to software process engineering, defining a lifecycle of the software process assets and a set of services and functions for its effective use in small and medium software development enterprises.
TopBackground And Definitions
This section presents concepts related to the application of knowledge repositories in software process asset libraries for helping to implement SPI strategies using KM.
Software Process Improvement
The objective of SPI is to implement and institutionalize improvement practices to develop software in the organization (i.e., to create new knowledge at an organizational level, creating processes that help the organization to acquire experience of existing sources that will be applied to new projects).
For an effective deployment of SPI it is necessary to facilitate the means for the organization continually gathering pieces of information valuable to attaining improvement and to package and infuse the synthesized experience into future projects. In such a way that it can assemble sub-processes in constructive fashion (Aaen et al., 2002).
The successful SPI models like CMMI in large companies offer incentives for their adoption in new environments but they must be adapted appropriately for its effective fulfillment.
SMEs have a great interest in how to introduce and sustain a SPI initiative, minimizing the limitations of its size and maximizing the benefits inherent in its culture. For the use of SPI models, these companies need to tailor the models to address the problems related to the size and key aspects like documentation, management, reviews, resources, and training.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Ontology: A formal and explicit specification of a shared conceptualization.
Knowledge Management: It is the systematic, explicit, and deliberate building, renewal, and application of knowledge to maximize an enterprise’s knowledge-related effectiveness and returns from its knowledge and intellectual capital assets.
Process Software Improvement: It is a systematic procedure to improve the performance of an existing process system by changing the current processes or adding new processes for correction or avoidance of the problems identified in the old system by process assessment.
Codification: to systematize and store information that represents the knowledge of the company, and makes this available for the people in the company.
SME: Small companies (size less than 100 persons), small organizations (belongs a more large organization, size less than 50 persons) and small projects (executed in organizations; size less than 20 persons).
PAL: It an organized, well-indexed, searchable repository of process assets that is easily accessible by anyone who needs process guidance information like examples, data, templates, or other process support materials.
Customization: to support the flow of information in a company by storing information about knowledge sources, like a “yellow pages” of in-house expertise.