An incremental approach to task-specific information delivery in SE processes

In this paper, we present a system to proactively provide software process participants with information items that are available and relevant in the context of their current tasks. Knowledge on which items to offer is obtained in two ways. First, situation-specific information needs that arise for participants are captured, together with the information sources that are accessed to satisfy them. These are recommended to other participants in similar situations using collaborative filtering techniques. Second, to allow for more systematic recommendation functionality, a formal language is provided to specify preconditions on when to offer certain information items. The resulting hybrid system thus supports an incremental phase-in of knowledge management techniques into an organization, allowing the organization to decide how much effort to spend on knowledge engineering.