MODELING KNOWLEDGE FLOWS IN SOFTWARE PROJECT

MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

Brenda Leticia Flores Rios, Sandra Luz Gastélum Ramírez

Institute of Engineering, Autonomous University of Baja California

Calle de la Normal S/N y Blvd. Benito Juárez Col. Insurgentes Este, C.P. 21280, Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico

Oscar Mario Rodríguez-Elías

Division of Graduate Studies and Research, Institute of Technology of Hermosillo

Ave. Tecnológico y Periférico Poniente S/N, Col. Sahuaro, C.P. 83170, Hermosillo, Sonora, México

Keywords: Software project management, Software process improvement, Knowledge management.

Abstract: Software development SMEs interested in launching a KM initiative or software project managers working

on taking their KM initiative to the next level, need to assess what strategy will best fit their knowledge

needs and which will be the most likely to succeed based on their social, cultural and technological aspects.

Taking into account the social and cultural characteristics of Mexican software development SMEs, the

Mexican Ministry of the Economy encouraged the creation and adoption of the NMX-I-059-NYCE-2005

Standard. The main goal of this standard is help SMEs become more competitive and reach higher maturity

levels. However, SMEs adopting or implementing this standard sometimes experience difficulties and

problems in their daily software activities. In this paper, we model ongoing knowledge flows as an

adaptation to Choo’s framework, applied to the project portfolio management process as defined in such

standard. In addition, we present some strategies followed by Mexican software development SMEs while

conducting a SPI program for maturity levels 1 and 2.

1 INTRODUCTION

The organizations’ capability to learn and innovate

depends on their ability to manage and integrate a

complex network of processes in which participants

enact and negotiate their own meanings of what is

going on; stumble upon and engage with new

knowledge to make it work; and work within as well

as improvise around set rules and routines to solve

tough problems (Choo and Johnston, 2004).

Knowledge Management (KM) can help address this

issue, since it provides methods, techniques and

tools for facilitating organizations to become

adaptable to these changing environments

(Davenport and Prusak, 2000).

Currently, the KM implementation strategies of

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are based on

the knowledge residing among the knowledge

workers (Wong, 2005), such as project managers or

developers. They apply a combination of several

types of knowledge and abilities with the aim to

accomplish their goals.

In order to provide support to the knowledge

flow within software development SMEs, it is

important to identify specific issues of the dynamics

of knowledge flows in the processes and activities

performed by members of these organizations; as

well as the social, cultural, and technological aspects

which can affect those flows (Rodríguez-Elías,

Vizcaíno, Martínez García, Favela and Piattini,

2009). Besides this, other approaches can be used

for establishing a general profile of knowledge needs

within a Software Process Improvement (SPI)

program, supporting the design implementation and

use of the SME’s knowledge base or experience

base.

SPI initiatives often experience difficulties and

problems when the improvements are implemented

and institutionalized in the organization’s daily

practices. Sometimes SPI programs experience

severe problems and some even fail after the

213

Flores Rios B., Gastélum Ramírez S. and Rodríguez-Elías O..

MODELING KNOWLEDGE FLOWS IN SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESSES.

DOI: 10.5220/0003093502130217

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing (KMIS-2010), pages 213-217

ISBN: 978-989-8425-30-0

 2010 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

assessment, when improvements must be

implemented and institutionalized in the

organization’s daily software activities, and there is

a need for more guidance on how to implement and

institutionalize SPI (Arent and Nørbjerg, 2000).

Oktaba, Piattini, Pino, Orozco y Alquicira (2008)

conducted a systemic survey on SPI. They found

that most SPI initiatives (71%) deal with guidance of

an improvement project, prioritizing improvements

implementation and using current improvement

models. In addition, use of KM in SPI initiatives

accounted for 11% of the cases. Capote, Llanten

Astaiza, Pardo Calvache, González Ramírez y

Collazos (2008) state that process improvement

models, such as IDEAL (McFeeley, 1996), lack a

management mechanism, for both tangible and

intangible assets, that eases capture and use of

valuable experiences during the performance of

improvement cycles. IDEAL is a process

improvement model that provides a structured

approach for continuous improvement based on

experiences from large organizations. Therefore, it

had to be adjusted for use in SMEs (Casey and

Richardson, 2002).

The motives listed above form a base for our

research. We are interested in analyzing ongoing

knowledge flows applied to the key principles of

KM-based SPI initiative using the Mexican Standard

NMX-I-059-NYCE-2005. In this perspective, it is

important to identify specific issues of the dynamics

of knowledge flows in the processes and activities

performed by the members of the organization

(Rodríguez-Elías et al., 2009).

2 SOFTWARE PROJECT

MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

IN THE NMX-I-059-NYCE-2005

STANDARD

NMX-I-059-NYCE-2005 is a Mexican Standard

developed to assist Mexican SMEs in an SPI

program implementation. This standard borrows

practices from other process improvement models,

such as CMMI v1.1, Project Management Body of

Knowledge (PMBOK), the Software Engineering

Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) and uses ISO 9001

as a general framework. It is divided into four parts

and complements the current Mexican Standards

NMX-I-006-NYCE (parts 01, 02 and 03) and NMX-

I-045-NYCE. Part 04 of the NMX-I-059-NYCE-

2005: Guidelines for Processes Assessment, is based

on the ISO/IEC 15504-2:1998. The process

assessment model defines five levels of capability

and their associated attributes.

Part 01 of the NMX-I-059-NYCE-2005 presents

the 9 required processes, grouped into three process

categories presented by means of a Unified

Modeling Language package diagram (NMX, 2005).

The management Category consists of management

practices for process management, projects portfolio

and resource-management based on the guidelines

established by the Top Management category.

Operations category addresses the practices of

software development and maintenance projects

(NMX, 2005). Each process identifies the roles

involved, required training, and infrastructure

resources needed to support activities. Here, the term

infrastructure is defined as a set of elements or

services deemed necessary for the creation and

operation of an SME (NMX, 2005).

Even though this standard recognizes knowledge

and training as strategic resources, it only specifies

general training profiles for roles. As a result, the

relationship between software project management

profiles, the process capacity level and its associated

attributes, remains undefined.

In addition, the Mexican standard suggests

storing organizational knowledge, e.g., Lessons

Learned (LL) and work experiences, in a knowledge

base; facilitating SMEs to learn from their

accumulated knowledge. This would help decrease

reworking, as well as reduce the appearance of

recurring problems, allowing Mexican software

development SMEs become more competitive

(Oktaba et al., 2008) and reach higher maturity

levels. The maturity levels are described as a number

of generic software development and management

practices. Arent and Nørbjerg, (2000) suggested

including KM practices in the maturity models.

Software process maturity is defined as the extent to

which a specific process is explicitly defined,

managed, measured, controlled and effective.

3 RESEARCH APPROACH

The research approach is organized as qualitative

methodology to guide the process of identifying the

ways knowledge flows in an organization, by

modeling them using a Process Reengineering

approach. This methodology is named as KoFI and

is composed by three stages (Rodriguez-Elias et al.,

2009).

The first stage deals with modeling the process

based on the flows of knowledge, including the

activities performed by the members of the

KMIS 2010 - International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing

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organization, the knowledge required and generated

in the activities, the people in charge of them, and

the sources of knowledge used, modified, or

generated during the activities. Analysis of the

process is performed in stage 2, while stage 3 is

oriented to identify the infrastructure resources or

tools that get involved with the flows of knowledge

(Rodríguez-Elías, 2007).

3.1 Knowledge Flows Modeling

for Software Project Management

Software project management is defined as a

discipline which uses knowledge and skills to fulfill

the goals of a project by means of the execution of a

set of activities. Two of the nine processes defined

in the Mexican Standard, Project Portfolio

Management process (GPY) and Specific Projects

Management process (APE), are related to software

project management. The purpose of GPY is to

ensure that projects contribute to fulfilling the

organization’s goals and strategies. On the other

hand, APE applies knowledge, skills, techniques and

tools to each one of the following project activities:

planning, performance, evaluation and control and

closing. NMX-I-059-NYCE-2005 Standard project

management related roles are Project Portfolio

Manager (RGPY) and Specific Projects Manager

(RAPE) (NMX, 2005).

A process modeling approach can be very useful

to identify how the knowledge and resources of

information are involved in the activities developed

by members of the organization. A Rich Picture

Diagram (RPD), as a graphical modeling technique,

can be used to analyze how the knowledge flows

through the group while its members perform their

activities (Rodríguez-Elias et al., 2009).

Based on the first stage of the KoFI

methodology, we made an adaptation of Choo’s

framework of the knowing organization using a RPD

with elements introduced by Rodriguez-Elias

(Figure 1). Knowing organization model is useful to

identify and analyze the structure and dynamics of

key processes (Choo and Johnston, 2004).

Information flows are continuously moving

between sensemaking, knowledge creation and

decision making; so the outcome of information use

in one mode, provides the elaborated context and the

expanded resources for information use in other

processes (Choo and Johnston, 2004).

Figure 1 shows the main tasks carried out in the

performance activity of the GPY, as defined in the

NMX-I-059-NYCE-2005 Standard. In this model, a

knowledge worker, represented by the RGPY,

creates and transfers knowledge using the SECI

model (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Socialization

is attained when the RGPY transfers and acquires

tacit knowledge to and from the RAPE and the

members of the software development team.

Externalization occurs through dialog that leads to

articulation of tacit knowledge and its subsequent

formalization to make it concrete and explicit.

Combination denotes coordination between different

groups in the project, along with documentation or

existing knowledge, to combine new explicit

knowledge in the software SME.

Figure 1: Adaptation of Choo’s model using a RPD.

Sensemaking allows the RGPY to construct tacit

knowledge from explicit knowledge

(Internalization) by sharing meanings and

information that shape the organization’s purpose

and frame the perception of problems or

opportunities that the organization needs to work on.

The knowledge sources can be people, documents,

support tools and internal products developed by the

software organization (Rodríguez-Elías et al., 2009).

Mexican software development SMEs can use

PMBOK, SWEBOK, ISO 10006:2003 or NMX-I-

059-NYCE-2005 as reference documents

(Declarative-Topic Knowledge) for identifying

useful information on topics like time and cost

estimation or project descriptions generation. RPGY

and RAPE store documents in the knowledge base

or remember the products of successful sensemaking

as stories, LL or causal sequences so that they are

available for future sensemaking.

Knowledge creation is precipitated by gaps in the

existing knowledge of the software organization or a

project group. The outcome of knowledge creation is

MODELING KNOWLEDGE FLOWS IN SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

215

a set of new abilities, capabilities, innovations

(Knowing-Doing Gap) or new products and services.

Such knowledge gaps stand in the way of solving a

technical or task-related problem (Declarative-

Episodic Knowledge), developing a new product, or

taking advantage of an opportunity (Choo and

Johnston, 2004).

The difficulty of making a decision then depends

on how clear project goals are, and how well the

RGPY knows about alternatives that lead to achieve

those goals. The RGPY and the software

development team may find that they lack the

knowledge or capability to solve the problem or

exploit the opportunity, which is known as a

decision-gap.

In addition, we identified two of the five

perspectives of Alavi and Leidner (2001) embodied

in the model. If knowledge is a process then the

implied KM focus is on the knowledge flow and the

processes of creation, sharing and distribution of

knowledge. Otherwise, the view of knowledge as a

capability suggests a KM perspective centered on

building core competencies and creating intellectual

capital. The capability to use information and tacit

knowledge (LL and experience) results in an ability

to interpret information and to ascertain what

information is necessary in decision making.

In order to identify the experience acquired by a

SME while conducting a SPI program for maturity

levels 1 and 2, we arranged reflection meetings with

three software development SMEs located in the

state of Baja California, México that have been

verified by NYCE, as the Mexico’s official

certifying organization. The SMEs didn’t have a

rough idea about how to integrate SPI from the KM

perspective. They only expressed the experiences

generated in their SPI program.

The analysis of the empirical data revealed that

66% of the SMEs decided to implement their own

knowledge base using the requirements of the

Mexican Standard as their only reference. This

Standard was also the only knowledge source for the

implementation of the SPI program used by all the

SMEs. Additionally, they were supported in

different ways by expert networks. Social processes

and expert networks (consultants) are necessary

because their tacit knowledge must be transmitted to

the SPI team. Also, we detected the importance of

knowledge sharing to equip the software

development group with the skills to foster creativity

and innovation. Accordingly, KM-based SPI

program are quite people intensive, although a

knowledge base or experience base were helpful for

SMEs to improve their required processes (top

management, management and operation) and

technical infrastructure to reach capability level 2.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The adapted model presented in this paper integrates

Choo’s model, SECI model and several types of

knowledge, because we considered they are

approaches related to knowledge flows. Choo’s

model considers knowledge flow as part of an

organizational context, seeing it as an enabling

resource for using information with practical goals,

such as decision making. In contrast, the knowledge

creation process approach relies on the four modes

of spiraling SECI.

Once the knowledge needs of empirical study’s

software project managers are identified, they will

help in the characterization of a KM level-specific

profile for GPY and APE processes, required by the

NMX-I-059-NYCE-2005 Standard. This profile can

help a software project manager identify training

needs within a SPI program, supporting the design

implementation and use of the SME’s knowledge

base.

We are currently conducting a study aimed to

find out the correlation between the KM level and

the capability level defined in the 2nd part of the

NMX-I-059-NYCE-2005 Standard. Here, we have

presented the preliminary results of the first step

towards the identification of such correlation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work is being financially supported by UABC

and CONACYT.

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