Software process improvement through the identification and removal of project-level knowledge flow obstacles

Uncontrollable costs, schedule overruns, and poor end product quality continue to plague the software engineering field. This research investigates software process improvement (SPI) through the application of knowledge management (KM) at the software project level. A pilot study was conducted to investigate what types of obstacles to knowledge flow exist within a software development project, as well as the potential influence on SPI of their mitigation or removal. The KM technique of “knowledge mapping” was used as a research technique to characterize knowledge flow. Results show that such mitigation or removal was acknowledged by project team members as having the potential for lowering project labor cost, improving schedule adherence, and enhancing final product quality.