Knowledge Sharing in a Large Agile Organisation: A Survey Study

Abstract

Abstract. Knowledge is a core resource for agile organisations that is transformed into products and services during the development process. Sharing of knowledge is essential across any organisation, and it has been claimed that the software industry requires more knowledge management than any other sector. Agile methodologies concentrate on team level collaboration, and some techniques for inter-team knowledge sharing have also proved to be successful. But these techniques focus on within-team and between-team knowledge sharing rather than knowledge sharing across the organisation. This paper presents the results of a survey with 81 responses on organisational knowledge sharing in a multinational agile company. The survey focuses on three aspects of knowledge sharing: within agile teams, beyond the team with company colleagues, and with customers. It concentrates on knowledge sharing practices, ease of knowledge sharing and motivation for knowledge sharing. Summary statistics, regression, and test of equity are used as analysis techniques. Results show that knowledge sharing with team members is significantly easier than with customers or company colleagues beyond their team. In addition, using agile practices improves ease of knowledge sharing within teams but not with customers or colleagues. Extrinsic motivators need to be in place to encourage knowledge sharing across the organisation, especially where such knowledge sharing is not an automatic consequence of completing the work.

Repensando Papeis em Equipes Ágeis: Um Estudo de Caso no Uso de uma Abordagem Combinada de Desenvolvimento Ágil, User-Centered Design e Lean Startup

“…O estudo de caso buscou identificar quais mudanças ocorreram entre os papéis e suas responsabilidades com a adoção da abordagem combinada pela ORG. A equipe passou a ter uma visão compartilhada do produto [Kuusinen et al 2017], em função da mudança em sua estrutura que passa a ser multifuncional. Outra mudança significativa está relacionada a inserção do papel do Product Designer que impactou diretamente nas responsabilidade de todos os papéis, pois agora todos passam a desenvolver o produto centrado no usuário.…”

Software Development and CSCW

“…It is thought that large-scale agile development is less effective, with levels of agility being limited by scaled environments [14]. Knowledge sharing across teams in a large-scale agile organization is an example of the challenges faced with agile at scale [35]. Understanding agile development and large-scale projects, followed by what effects self-organizing teams was among the 'Top 10 Burning Questions from Practitioners' in 2010 [11].…”

Impact of Agile Practices Adoption on Organizational Learning: a Survey in Brazil

“…As contribution of this study, we emphasize the importance of Agile practice in the learning process of individuals and organizations. Furthermore, the proposed model represents a breakthrough in literature that lacks empirical studies for Agile methods adoption [11]. We also highlight that the research instrument as well as the parameters used in our research may be reproduced in order to enlarge the comprehension of how Knowledge Management and software engineering correlate, especially when using Agile methods.…”