Review of approaches to manage architectural knowledge in Agile Global Software Development. Issue 3 (1st June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Borrego, Gilberto; Morán, Alberto L.; Palacio Cinco, Ramón René; Rodríguez-Elias, Oscar Mario; García-Canseco, Eloísa
• Is Part Of: IET software. Volume 11:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 77
• Page End: 88
• Publication Date: 2017-06-01
• Subjects: software architecture -- software prototyping; agile global software development -- AGSD -- software industry -- architecture knowledge management -- AKM -- documentation artefact-based -- communication-based -- methodological-based; Computer software -- Periodicals; Software engineering -- Periodicals; 005.1
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-sen.2016.0197
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-8806

Abstract

Abstract : Nowadays, Agile and Global Software Development (AGSD) has brought benefits and new challenges to the software industry. Among the main challenges is Architecture Knowledge Management (AKM), due to the following reasons: (i) in Agile Software Development team members prefer to convey knowledge in a face‐to‐face manner, over transmitting it through formal documents; and (ii) an efficient AKM in Global Software Development involves managing explicit knowledge. These opposite paradigms turn AKM into an unsolved issue in AGSD. In this study, the authors present a systematic mapping review about AKM in AGSD. From this review, they identified nine approaches that AGSD companies use to overcome the AKM challenge, which are grouped in three areas: (i) documentation artefact‐based, (ii) communication‐based, and (iii) methodological‐based. Also, they found that the selected papers evenly support the three phases of the integrated knowledge management cycle (creation/capture, sharing/dissemination and acquisition/application), although only 7% of them support the capture of architectural knowledge in a formalised way. Finally, they conclude proposing critical points to consider in the implementation of AKM solutions in AGSD, and presenting their directions of future work.