Contents:

Abstract

Contents

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

List of Tables

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Problem Outline 2

1.2 Claimed Contributions 3

1.3 Chosen Research Strategy 7

1.4 Research Context 9

1.5 Scope 9

1.6 Structure of the Thesis 10

2 Software Development; Problems and Remedies 13

2.1 Software development 13

2.2 Problems in Software Engineering: Overruns and Unfulfilled Requirements 15

2.3 Suggested Solutions: Is There A Silver Bullet? 17

2.4 Knowledge Management and Learning Organisations 23

2.5 Research Methods in Software Engineering 29

3 Knowledge Management 35

3.1 What is Knowledge? 35

3.2 Learning 37

3.3 What is Knowledge Management? 43

3.4 Case Studies of Knowledge Management in Software Engineering 57

4 Research Goals, Method and Design 67

4.1 Research Goals 67

4.2 Research Process and Methods 70

4.3 Validity Considerations 78

4.4 Ethical considerations 80

5 Empirical Investigation 83

5.1 Prestudy: Four Codification Initiatives 83

5.2 Main Study: Alpha and Beta 87

5.3 Usage of Knowledge Management Tools in Alpha and Beta 93

6 Discussion and Analysis 115

6.1 Knowledge Management Case Studies from the Literature 115

6.2 Success Factors in Codification Initiatives 119

6.3 Knowledge Transfer by Intranet-Tools 125

6.4 Comparison of the Different Studies 133

6.5 Empirical Investigations in Relation to Theory 137

6.6 What is Special for Medium-Sized Companies? 138

7 Conclusion and Further Work 141

7.1 Conclusions from the Literature Study 141

7.2 Conclusions from the Prestudy 142

7.3 Conclusions from the Main Study 144

7.4 Implications of our Findings 146

7.5 Evaluation 146

7.6 Further Work 147

Appendix A Interview Guides 149

A.1 Questions for developers: 149

A.2 Questions for process owner for knowledge management: 151

A.3 Questions for management: 153

A.4 Questions for knowledge sharers of the month: 154

Appendix B: Processed Usage Logs 157

Index 165

References 169

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