Managing Knowledge in Medium-Sized Software Companies

The software industry is an ideal case of information production with a high importance of knowledge and information management. This paper distinguishes information and knowledge management and points out the dependencies. It analyses the situation, enablers and restrictions to knowledge management in software companies. In two case studies, a number of obstacles to the introduction of knowledge management such as a lack of awareness, a technical oriented professional code, or time and cost pressure in software development projects are identified and measures towards the introduction of an effective knowledge management system are illustrated. The findings from the case studies are summarized in general problems and possible solutions for knowledge management in medium-sized software companies. 1 Knowledge Management in the Software Industry – a Challenge! A software enterprise can be defined as an enterprise with more than 50% of its turnover in software and software services. Software, as well as software services, mainly consist of information. Additionally, the corresponding production processes are information and knowledge intensive. As Hoch et. al put it: „Software is nothing but pure knowledge in codified form“[1]. Therefore, the potential of knowledge management (KM) and information management (IM), respectively, is high in software enterprises and the software industry ( figure 1). With the development towards an information society, the character of the existing industries will change. As well the industries’ shares in the national product will shift towards sector 4, i. e. information rich products and information intensive production processes (“trend” in figure 1). Considering this general trend, the software industry can be seen as a reference point for other industries in the future. Experiences from the application of new management concepts such as knowledge or information management in software industry will then be worth rendering. in fo rm at io n in te ns ity o f pr od uc tio n pr oc es se s Information contents of products high low lo w hi gh financial services insurance oil refinery