FOSTERING INTER-TEAM KNOWLEDGE SHARING EFFECTIVENESS IN AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Viviane Santos, Alfredo Goldman, Cleidson R. B. de Souza · 2012
Agile methods have impacted on software development by providing several changes on how software is developed. Agile values, principles and practices foster intra-team knowledge sharing. However, they do not inform how to cope with that across organizational levels. This study seeks to understand inter-team knowledge sharing effectiveness in agile software development organizations that employ practices for this endeavor. Using grounded theory, we analyzed data from four Brazilian agile software organizations and got feedback from an expert in agile methods implementation. Our main contribution is a conceptual model that explains how effectiveness depends on applying purposeful practices, along with organizational conditions and stimuli, that foster knowledge sharing across agile software development teams. This understanding represents an innovative focus within agile context and provides what to consider when striving on this path. Yet, it yields opportunities for further studies in refining and extending the model to several organizational contexts. Scaling agility toward organizational level is the next horizon for agile software development. Cross-team knowledge sharing leverages this endeavor and also reflects the way agile software organizations are coping with enterprise agility and the consideration of knowledge as a resource for organizational competitiveness.