Knowledge Management: A Solution to Requirements Understanding in Global Software Engineering

The aim of the study is to identify useful Knowledge Management (KM) practices/tools in order to overcome Requirements Understanding (RU) challenges in Global Software Engineering (GSE). As Requirements Engineering (RE) is considered one of the most crucial, human intensive and challenging phase of software engineering. A paradigm shift from traditional co-located to offshore development has introduced additional complications in RE specifically in RU. Issues in GSE like involvement of people from diverse culture, different inter-personal communication and coordination skills leads to RU problems. For this, the need of proper practices/tools to overcome RU challenges in global setting is obvious from literature. So, this study focuses on two things. Firstly, in this study authors have mentioned major RU challenges in GSE which were identified in author’s pervious study. Secondly, authors have identified useful Knowledge Management (KM) practices/tools that can aid globally dispersed software development teams in RU. For this purpose, industrial surveys were conducted in software companies involved in GSE. Thereby, useful KM practices such as Document Management, Competence Management and Knowledge sharing processes such as Socialization are identified to address RU issues faced in GSE. In addition, modern and advanced ICT tools such as video and audio conferencing, Forums, Intranets, have also been proposed for overcoming these challenges. Moreover, a detailed analysis is presented that how a specific KM practice/tool helps to cater a specific RU challenge.