Knowledge management to deal with risk in the process of software development: A case study

Improving the efficiency of the risk management process in highly complex environments such as the software development industry has been drawing the attention of researchers that seek to understand how knowledge can help reduce those risks, and how it can help in the decision-making processes related to them. The present study was developed to contribute to understanding the role of knowledge management in reducing risks in the software development process. The qualitative research, conducted through a case study, tried to emphasize the mechanisms of conversion and the style of knowledge management employed to deal with the elements of knowledge related to risk. The work is restricted to the conditions found in companies certified by quality management programs. The results include the observation that risk management helps to obtain and to organize knowledge about risks, creating the conditions to re-utilize knowledge and thereby improve the efficiency of the risk management process. It was also observed that most of that knowledge is to be found within the sphere of explicit knowledge, more common in the style of knowledge management oriented to systems.