The role of knowledge-based resources in Agile Software Development contexts
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2023

The software value chain is knowledge-based since it is highly dependant on people. Consequently, a lack of practice in managing knowledge as a resource may jeopardise its application in software development. Knowledge-Based Resources (KBRs) relate to employees' intangible knowledge that is deemed to be valuable to a company's competitive advantage. In this study, we apply a grounded theory approach to examine the role of KBRs in Agile Software Development (ASD). To this aim, we collected data from 18 practitioners from five companies. We develop the Knowledge-Push theory, which explains how KBRs boost the need for change in ASD. Our results show that the practitioners who participated in the study utilise, as primary strategies, task planning, resource management, and social collaboration. These strategies are implemented through the team environment and settings and incorporate an ability to codify and transmit knowledge. However, this process of codification is non-systematic, which consequently introduces inefficiency in the domain of knowledge resource util-isation, resulting in potential knowledge waste. This inefficiency can generate negative implications for software development, including meaningless searches in databases, frustration because of recurrent problems, the unnecessary redesign of solutions, and a lack of awareness of knowledge sources.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Knowledge management

Grounded theory

Agile software development

Knowledge-based resources

Software development

Författare

Raquel Ouriques

Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, BTH

Krzysztof Wnuk

Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, BTH

Tony Gorschek

Blekinge Tekniska Högskola, BTH

Richard Berntsson Svensson

Software Engineering 1

Göteborgs universitet

Journal of Systems and Software

0164-1212 (ISSN)

Vol. 197 111572

Ämneskategorier (SSIF 2025)

Programvaruteknik

Företagsekonomi

DOI

10.1016/j.jss.2022.111572

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2025-06-25