Publication: ITAKA: gestión interactiva del conocimiento en organizaciones de desarrollo de software
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2012-06
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2012-07-17
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Abstract
El conocimiento es uno de los principales activos en un entorno económico e industrial tan competitivo como el actual. La necesidad de diferenciación de los competidores lleva a las empresas a gestionar su conocimiento organizacional. Cuando es gestionado de manera adecuada, el conocimiento se convierte en un recurso clave para muchas organizaciones porque permite mejorar su competitividad, siendo el descubrimiento de conocimiento visto como una fuente de innovación. Puesto que la calidad del software está directamente relacionada con la calidad del proceso a través del cual es desarrollado este, muchas organizaciones de ingeniería del software tratan de mejorar la calidad de sus productos mejorando sus procesos organizacionales. Para ello, las compañías deben esforzarse continuamente en maximizar el uso de su conocimiento organizacional y/o experiencia. La manera en que las organizaciones recogen, gestionan, comparten, y reutilizan su conocimiento es habitualmente conocida como Gestión del Conocimiento (Knowledge Management – KM). Los Sistemas de Gestión del Conocimiento (Knowledge Management Systems – KMS) proporcionan soporte para manejar el conocimiento en las organizaciones y la implementación de un KMS es una manera positiva de ayudar al aprendizaje basado en el trabajo a través de la aplicación de las tecnologías de la información. Los repositorios de conocimiento son habitualmente una de las estructuras básicas en todo KMS. Estos repositorios almacenan artefactos de conocimiento de tal manera que pueden ser recuperados y reutilizados para producir software de mayor calidad y también para mejorar el rendimiento de la organización. En las organizaciones de ingeniería de software, este tipo de repositorio de conocimiento es habitualmente conocido como Biblioteca de Activos de Proceso (Process Asset Libraries – PAL). Una PAL se puede definir como un repositorio de activos de proceso que está organizado, bien indexado y que permite búsquedas, siendo fácilmente accesible por quienquiera que necesite información para el guiado de procesos, ejemplos, datos, plantillas u otros materiales de ayuda a los procesos. Una PAL puede ser utilizada como el elemento clave de la infraestructura necesaria para diseminar y aprender prácticas efectivas entre los ingenieros de software de la organización, aumentando sus competencias y sus capacidades. El conocimiento útil y relevante es sin embargo difícil de encontrar, y cuando es encontrado su replicación en la práctica. Gran parte del conocimiento útil para la ejecución de los procesos de software es personal, específico del contexto y difícil de formalizar y comunicar. Esta tesis doctoral se enfoca al establecimiento de mecanismos para enriquecer el conocimiento organizacional dentro del contexto del desarrollo de software añadiendo conocimiento tácito al ya existente de una manera asistida y semi‐automática, haciendo además que su diseminación a lo largo de la organización sea sencilla. ITAKA (Interactive TAcit Knowledge Administration) es la solución propuesta en esta tesis doctoral para tratar de resolver estos problemas. Basándose en los principios del KM, ITAKA proporciona un marco de trabajo compuesto por un modelo de conocimiento, los procesos para su gestión y una plataforma tecnológica para la administración interactiva y colaborativa del conocimiento tácito necesario para facilitar el aprendizaje y la adopción de nuevos procesos de desarrollo de software. ITAKA implementa mecanismos para (1) adquirir el conocimiento tácito que las personas obtienen mientras trabajan en distintos equipos para enriquecer colaborativamente el conocimiento organizacional, y (2) diseminar el conocimiento organizacional mejorado entre los diferentes equipos de proyecto. Esta propuesta está inicialmente orientada –pero no limitada– a entornos que requieran el aprendizaje y la adopción de nuevos procesos (p.ej. iniciativas de mejora continua de procesos y la integración de nuevas personas en la organización). ITAKA ha sido validada en un experimento controlado realizado durante dos años en un curso de formación en el que participaron ingenieros junior. Los resultados de esta validación muestran que ITAKA es efectivo en la captura, formalización y distribución del conocimiento que surge de las diferentes interacciones entre los miembros de una organización de ingeniería de software. ITAKA también proporciona un entorno efectivo para el aprendizaje y la adopción de nuevos procesos y prácticas para el desarrollo de software de calidad. A pesar del poco esfuerzo requerido para utilizar las funcionalidades del sistema, se necesita de cierto tiempo para acostumbrarse a su uso y para lograr que los usuarios se involucren. Así, la calidad de los productos desarrollados mejora con el paso del tiempo. Los resultados también sugieren que el éxito de ITAKA depende de factores tales como: a) la utilidad percibida de las herramientas, b) el número de activos de conocimiento publicados, c) la cantidad de información duplicada, d) la distribución del nuevo conocimiento aportado, e) la usabilidad de herramientas y procesos, f) el conocimiento adquirido por todos los usuarios, y g) el cambio cultural que supone. Estos factores resaltan áreas importantes para futuros investigadores y profesionales a la hora de desarrollar entornos colaborativos de aprendizaje en ingeniería del software. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Knowledge is one of the main assets in today’s highly competitive environment. The need for differentiation from competitors led companies to manage their existing organizational knowledge. When managed properly, knowledge becomes a key resource for many organizations because it can improve their competitiveness, knowledge discovery being seen as a source of innovation. Given that the quality of software is directly related to the quality of the process through which software is developed, many software engineering organizations try to enhance the quality of their products by improving their organizational processes. To do so, companies must continually strive to maximize the use of their organizational knowledge and/or experience. The way organizations gather, manage, share, and reuse their knowledge is often referred to as Knowledge Management (KM). Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) support the handling of knowledge in organizations and the implementation of a KMS is a positive way of supporting work‐based learning through the application of information technology. Knowledge repositories are usually one of the base structures in every KMS. A knowledge repository stores knowledge artefacts in such manner they can be retrieved and reused in order to produce software of higher quality and also to improve the organizational performance. In software engineering organisations, this kind of knowledge repository is usually known as Process Asset Library (PAL). A PAL can be defined as an organised, well‐indexed, searchable repository of process assets that is easily accessible by anyone who needs process guidance information, examples, data, templates or other process support materials. A PAL can be used as the key infrastructure element that is required to support the dissemination and learning of effective practices among an organisation’s software engineers, increasing their competences and capabilities. Useful and relevant knowledge, however, is difficult to find and when found, is difficult to replicate in practice. Most of the knowledge useful for the execution of software processes is personal, context‐specific and hard to formalise and communicate. This doctoral thesis aimed to establish mechanisms to enrich the organisational knowledge within a software development context by adding tacit knowledge to the pre‐existing one in an assisted and semi‐automatic way, making it easier to disseminate throughout the organisation. ITAKA (Interactive TAcit Knowledge Administration) is the solution proposed in this doctoral thesis to tackle these problems. Based on KM principles, ITAKA provides a framework composed of a knowledge model, the processes for its management and a technological platform to interactively and collaboratively administrate the tacit knowledge needed for helping in the learning and adoption of new software development processes. ITAKA implements mechanisms to (1) acquire the tacit knowledge individuals obtain while working in different teams to collaboratively enrich organizational knowledge, and (2) disseminate the upgraded organizational knowledge among different project teams. This proposal is initially targeted at –but not restricted to– environments that require the learning and adoption of new processes (e.g. continuous process improvement initiatives and the integration of new people into the organization). ITAKA was validated in a controlled experiment involving junior engineers in a training course over two years. The results of this validation show that ITAKA is effective in capturing, formalising and distributing the knowledge that arises in different interactions among the members of a software engineering organization. ITAKA also provides an effective environment in order to learn and adopt new processes and practices to develop quality software. In spite of the little effort required for using the features of the system, it requires some time to get used to them and to get users involved. Thus, the quality of the products developed improves with the time. The results also suggest that success of ITAKA depends on factors such as: a) perceived use of the tools, b) number of knowledge assets published, c) duplication of information, d) distribution of the contributed new knowledge, e) usability of tools and processes, f) knowledge acquired by all users, and g) cultural change. These factors highlight important areas for future researchers and practitioners when developing collaborative learning environments in software engineering.
Knowledge is one of the main assets in today’s highly competitive environment. The need for differentiation from competitors led companies to manage their existing organizational knowledge. When managed properly, knowledge becomes a key resource for many organizations because it can improve their competitiveness, knowledge discovery being seen as a source of innovation. Given that the quality of software is directly related to the quality of the process through which software is developed, many software engineering organizations try to enhance the quality of their products by improving their organizational processes. To do so, companies must continually strive to maximize the use of their organizational knowledge and/or experience. The way organizations gather, manage, share, and reuse their knowledge is often referred to as Knowledge Management (KM). Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) support the handling of knowledge in organizations and the implementation of a KMS is a positive way of supporting work‐based learning through the application of information technology. Knowledge repositories are usually one of the base structures in every KMS. A knowledge repository stores knowledge artefacts in such manner they can be retrieved and reused in order to produce software of higher quality and also to improve the organizational performance. In software engineering organisations, this kind of knowledge repository is usually known as Process Asset Library (PAL). A PAL can be defined as an organised, well‐indexed, searchable repository of process assets that is easily accessible by anyone who needs process guidance information, examples, data, templates or other process support materials. A PAL can be used as the key infrastructure element that is required to support the dissemination and learning of effective practices among an organisation’s software engineers, increasing their competences and capabilities. Useful and relevant knowledge, however, is difficult to find and when found, is difficult to replicate in practice. Most of the knowledge useful for the execution of software processes is personal, context‐specific and hard to formalise and communicate. This doctoral thesis aimed to establish mechanisms to enrich the organisational knowledge within a software development context by adding tacit knowledge to the pre‐existing one in an assisted and semi‐automatic way, making it easier to disseminate throughout the organisation. ITAKA (Interactive TAcit Knowledge Administration) is the solution proposed in this doctoral thesis to tackle these problems. Based on KM principles, ITAKA provides a framework composed of a knowledge model, the processes for its management and a technological platform to interactively and collaboratively administrate the tacit knowledge needed for helping in the learning and adoption of new software development processes. ITAKA implements mechanisms to (1) acquire the tacit knowledge individuals obtain while working in different teams to collaboratively enrich organizational knowledge, and (2) disseminate the upgraded organizational knowledge among different project teams. This proposal is initially targeted at –but not restricted to– environments that require the learning and adoption of new processes (e.g. continuous process improvement initiatives and the integration of new people into the organization). ITAKA was validated in a controlled experiment involving junior engineers in a training course over two years. The results of this validation show that ITAKA is effective in capturing, formalising and distributing the knowledge that arises in different interactions among the members of a software engineering organization. ITAKA also provides an effective environment in order to learn and adopt new processes and practices to develop quality software. In spite of the little effort required for using the features of the system, it requires some time to get used to them and to get users involved. Thus, the quality of the products developed improves with the time. The results also suggest that success of ITAKA depends on factors such as: a) perceived use of the tools, b) number of knowledge assets published, c) duplication of information, d) distribution of the contributed new knowledge, e) usability of tools and processes, f) knowledge acquired by all users, and g) cultural change. These factors highlight important areas for future researchers and practitioners when developing collaborative learning environments in software engineering.
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Keywords
Ingeniería del software, Desarrollo de productos y procesos, Gestión estratégica, Gestión del conocimiento