Managing Tacit Knowledge for a Software Development Process: A Case Study

The acquisition and management of knowledge is increasingly more important in today's economy because of the large proportion of the workforce eligible for retirement in the next 10 years. Companies have long understood that reusing explicit knowledge in the form of policies, documentation and procedures produces tremendous savings, reduces variability, decreases costs, and improves overall quality. Unfortunately, a considerable portion of corporate knowledge is tacit or known at a non-verbal level, and does not lend itself to reuse. This research examines "how" and "why" questions regarding a specific process used for managing and sharing tacit knowledge related to the software development life cycle. The issues related to acquiring, preserving and disseminating the tacit knowledge are discussed in detail, and the advantages and managerial implications of the results of the method are described, together with implications for knowledge workers and managers in other industries.