Developing and maintaining software systems is a knowledge intensive task. One needs knowledge of the application domain of the software, the problem the system solves, the requirements for this problem, the architecture of the system and how the different parts fit together, how the system interacts with its environment, etc. More often than not, this knowledge is not documented and lives only...

Training or education? Berge writes: "Training has to do with the learners' acquiring knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are useful to them immediately to improve performance on the job. Education … is just-in-case and not just-in-time." (p.4). He also writes he "strongly believe that there must be a direct and clear link between training and the solving of a business problem." (p.4). As he ...

In work life, socially based learning occurs all the time. We learn from interactions between peers, genders, functional groups, and across hierarchies, and it happens in ways not normally recognized as learning (Jordan, 1993). Therefore, use of the term “social” learning reflects that organizations, organizational units, and work groups are social clusters, as are study groups and task groups,...

Business training and education are changing. Organizations have experienced dramatic changes in their structure, competitive environment, and the demographics and demands of their employees. As a result, organizations are seeking new and innovative ways to train employees. At the same time the evolution of technology mediated learning tools (TML) has resulted in flexible, interactive, engaging...

There is often said to be a tension between the two types of organizational learning activities, exploration and exploitation. The argument goes that the two activities are substitutes, competing for scarce resources when firms need different capabilities and management policies. We present another explanation, attributing the tension to the dynamic interactions among search, knowledge sharing,...

Received: 26 July 2006 Revised: 27 September 2007 Accepted: 30 November 2007 Abstract While post mortem evaluation (PME) has long been advocated as a means of improving development practices by learning from IT project failures, few organizations conduct PMEs. The purpose of the study is to explain this discrepancy between theory and practice. This paper integrates findings from a Delphi study ...