The Role of Methods in Software Process Knowledge Creation

Software development is a social process in which innovation and knowledge creation are important factors for project success. How knowledge in large software organizations is created has been scarcely researched despite extensive research regarding knowledge creation processes in general. How methods and practice interact in knowledge creation processes in large software organizations has not been thoroughly studied. In the software development literature it has been argued that methods play a role as a framework for communication and experience capturing, thus facilitating re-use and creation of new software process knowledge. Another research stream presents a contradictory picture and argue that methods are seldom used in practice, and that their positive impact on software development has been exaggerated. There is however a common argument in the IS literature that most organizations report that they use methods and spend considerable resources on their development and implementation. This paper discusses knowledge creation in software development organizations, and what role methods play in a knowledge creation process consisting of method and practice. Drawing on data from an observational study the paper presents and discusses a number of lessons regarding methods’ role in knowledge creation in software organizations.