Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

An empirical study to design an effective agile knowledge management framework

  • Published:
Multimedia Tools and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Despite the profusion of research about knowledge management within larger organizations, fewer studies tried to analyze knowledge management in small and medium enterprises. The study contributes to research by providing a more nuanced classification of knowledge management approaches and guides managers about the types of knowledge management approaches that should be adopted based on the size, geographical dispersion, and task nature of the organization. A purposive sample of 34 companies was selected for this study along with a survey that focused on the objective of investigating awareness and implementing strategies of knowledge management. The various phases and processes of knowledge management were accounted for. Organizations were bifurcated on the criteria like the core area of the company, the size of the company, the type of company, etc. Knowledge management implementation was judged through each dimension. Different statistical tests were carried out to test a set hypothesis. Having established that wide variation in overall adoption of knowledge management practices exists across the software engineering organizations, the different characteristics associated with knowledge management adoption were tested: organization size in terms of employee strength, the domain of the software engineering, team distribution, and type of organization. To a surprise, most of the organizational characteristics are not found in the significantly associated with knowledge management adoption except knowledge management adoption level in full and partial agile organizations and the relationship between the organization KM level and the number of software developers in organization for only product development companies is found significant. Opposite to the claims of many researchers, this study does not find any significant difference between knowledge management adoptions between distributed and co-located agile teams.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets are available.

References

  1. Amritesh, Misra SC (2014) Conceptual modelling for knowledge management to support agile software development. Knowl Eng Rev 29(4):496–511

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Anderson R, Cabral Y, Ribeiro MB, Noll RP (2014) 2014 knowledge Management in Agile Software Projects: a systematic review. J Inf Knowl Manag 13(1):1450010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Beecham S, OLeary P, Richardson I, Baker S, Noll J (2013) Who are we doing global software engineering research for? Global software engineering (ICGSE), 8th international conference on global software engineering (ICGSE), 41-50

  4. Bjørnson F, Dingsøyra T (2008) Knowledge management in software engineering: a systematic review of studied concepts, findings and research methods used. Inf Softw Technol 50(11):1055–1068

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Cabral YA, Blois RM, Lemke AP, Silva M T, Cristal M, Franco C (2009). A case study of knowledge management usage in agile software projects. In International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (pp. 627–638). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

  6. Cao L, Mohan K, Xu P, Ramesh B (2004) How extreme does extreme programming have to be? Adapting XP practices to large-scale projects. 37th annual Hawaii international conference on system sciences, track 3, 308

  7. Chau T, Maurer F (2004) Tool support for inter-team learning in agile software organizations, international workshop on learning software organizations, advances in learning software organizations, 98-109

  8. Chaudhuri S (2011) Knowledge Management in Indian IT industries, 2011 3rd international conference on information and financial engineering IPEDR, 251-258

  9. Cloke G (2007) Get your agile freak on! Agile adoption at yahoo! Music. In Agile Conference (AGILE), 240–248

  10. Cockburn A, Williams L (2001) The costs and benefits of pair programming. Extreme programming examined, Addison-Wesley, 223–224

  11. Connelly CE, Kelloway K (2003) Predictions of employees perceptions of knowledge sharing cultures. Leadersh Org Dev J 24(5):294–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Dikert K, Paasivaara M, Lassenius C (2016) Challenges and success factors for large-scale agile transformations: a systematic literature review. J Syst Softw 119:87–108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Durst S, Edvardsson IR (2012) Knowledge management in SMEs: a literature review. J Knowl Manag 16(6):879–903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Esper TL, Ellinger AE, Stank TP, Flint DJ, Moon M (2010) Demand and supply integration: a conceptual framework of value creation through knowledge management. J Acad Mark Sci 38(1):5–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Genovese A, Lenny Koh SC, Acquaye A (2013) Energy efficiency retrofitting services supply chains: evidence about stakeholders and configurations from the Yorskhire and Humber region case. Int J Prod Econ 144(1):20–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Grant RM (1996) Prospering in dynamically competitive environments: organizational capability as knowledge integration. Organ Sci 7(4):375–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Hazzan O, Dubinsky Y (2003) Teaching a software development methodology: the case of extreme programming. 16th international conference on software engineering education and training, Madrid, Spain, 176-184

  18. Hilkka MR, Tuure T, Matti R (2005) Is extreme programming just old wine in new bottles: a comparison of two cases. J Database Manag 16(4):41–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Hung YH, Chou SCT, Tzeng GH (2011) Knowledge management adoption and assessment for SMEs by a novel MCDM approach. Decis Support Syst 1(2):270–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Kaisti M, Rantala V, Mujunen T, Hyrynsalmi S, Konnola K, Makila T, Lehtonen T (2013) Agile methods for embedded systems development – a literature review and a mapping study. EURASIP J Embed Syst 15(1):1–16

    Google Scholar 

  21. Kogut B, Zander U (1992) Knowledge of the firm, combinative capabilities, and the replication of technology. Organ Sci 3(3):383–397

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Koskela T, Teknillinen V (2003) Software configuration management in agile methods, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Julkaisija – Utgivare – Publisher

  23. Kroll J, Mäkiö J, Assaad M (2016) Challenges and practices for effective knowledge transfer in globally distributed teams – a systematic literature review. 8th international joint conference on knowledge discovery, knowledge engineering and knowledge management, 3: KMIS, (IC3K 2016), 156-164

  24. Kruger CJ, Johnson RD (2013) Knowledge management according to organizational size: a south African perspective. SA J Inf Manag 15(1):526–533

    Google Scholar 

  25. Kukreja V, Ahuja S, Singh A (2021) Identification, assessment and ranking agile software development critical success factors – a factor analysis approach. Inderscience 14(3):2021

    Google Scholar 

  26. Lindsjorn Y, Sjoberg D, Dingsoyr T, Bergersen GR, Dybûa T (2016) Teamwork quality and project success in software development: a survey of agile development teams. J Syst Softw 122:274–286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Marra M, Ho W, Edwards JS (2012) Supply chain knowledge management: a literature review. Expert Syst Appl 39(5):6103–6110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Moffett S, McAdam R (2006). The effects of organizational size on knowledge management implementation: opportunities for small firms?. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 17(2):221–241

  29. Nilesh N (2010) Knowledge management at Unisys and Infosys, (https://www.slideshare.net/nikeshn/knowledge-management-at-infosys-and-unisys-a-comparison) visited in August 2017

  30. Nonaka I, Takeuchi H (1995) The knowledge-creating company. Oxford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  31. Paasivaara M, Behm B, Lassenius C, Hallikainen M (2014) Towards rapid releases in large-scale Xaas development at Ericsson: a case study. 9th international conference on global software engineering, 16–25

  32. Paterek P (2016) Effective knowledge Management in Agile Project Teams - impact and enablers. PM World Journal 5(5):1–15

    Google Scholar 

  33. Pillania RK (2008) Creation and categorization of knowledge in automotive components SMEs in India. Manag Decis 46(10):1452–1464

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Razzak MA, Mite D (2015) Knowledge Management in Globally Distributed Agile Projects -- lesson learned, 10th international conference on global software engineering (ICGSE), 81-89

  35. Samuel KE, Goury ML, Gunasekaran A, Spalanzani A (2011) Knowledge management in supply chain: an empirical study from France. J Strateg Inf Syst 20:283–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Serenko A, Bontis N, Hardie T (2007) Organisational size and knowledge flow: a proposed theoretical link. J Intellect Cap 8(4):610–627

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Sfetsos P, Angelis L, Stamelos I (2006) Investigating the extreme programming system – an empirical study. Empir Softw Eng 11(2):269–301

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Singh A, Singh K, Sharma N (2012) Managing knowledge in agile software development international conference on recent advances and future trends in information technology. Proc Int J Comput Appl (IJCA) 50:33–37

    Google Scholar 

  39. Singh A, Singh K, Sharma N (2014) Agile in global software engineering: an exploratory experience. Int J Agile Syst Manag 8(1):23–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Singh A, Singh K, Sharma N (2015) Agile Knowledge Management: A survey of Indian perceptions. Innov Syst Softw Eng: A NASA J 10(2):297–315

    Google Scholar 

  41. Sison R, Yang T (2007) Use of agile methods and practices in the Philippines. 14th Asia-Pacific software engineering conference. 462-469

  42. Srivastava A, Mehrotra D, Kapur PK, Aggarwal AG (2020) Analytical evaluation of agile success factors influencing quality in software industry. Int J Syst Assur Eng Manag 11:247–257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Tsoy M, Staples DS (2020) What are the critical success factors for agile analytics projects? Inf Syst Manag:1–18

  44. Turk D, France R, Rumpe B (2005) Assumptions underlying agile software-development processes. J Database Manag 16(4):62–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Vanhanen J, Korpi H (2007) Experiences of using pair programming in an agile project. 40th annual Hawaii international conference on system sciences, 274-280

  46. Wong KY (2005) Critical success factors for implementing knowledge Management in Small and Medium Enterprises. Ind Manag Data Syst 105(3):261–279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Xu J, Quaddus M (2007) Exploring the factors influencing end users’ acceptance of knowledge management systems: development of a research model of adoption and continued use. J Organ End User Comput 19(4):54–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Zenun MMN, Loureiro G, Araujo CS (2007) The effects of teams’ co-location on project performance. In: Complex Systems Concurrent Engineering, 717–722

  49. Zykov SV, Singh A (2020) Agile Enterprise engineering: smart application of human factors - models, methods, practices, case studies, publish in book series, smart innovation, systems and technologies. springer international, 978-3-030-40988-3

Download references

Funding

No funding is available for doing this research work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jagat Guru Nanak Dev Punjab State Open University, Punjab, India

    Amitoj Singh

  2. Chitkara University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chitkara University, Punjab, India

    Vinay Kukreja

  3. Department of Computational Sciences, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University, Bathinda, India

    Munish Kumar

Authors
  1. Amitoj Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Vinay Kukreja
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Munish Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vinay Kukreja.

Ethics declarations

Conflicts of interests

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Competing interests

The authors declare that no potential conflicts of interest (financial or non-financial).

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Singh, A., Kukreja, V. & Kumar, M. An empirical study to design an effective agile knowledge management framework. Multimed Tools Appl 82, 12191–12209 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-13871-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-13871-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation