Exploring knowledge management in agile software development organizations

Knowledge represents a sustainable asset for innovative firms and specifically software industries working in unpredictable environments. Until the late 90's, the most widely used software development approaches advocated extensive documentation and traceability. The emphasized knowledge is mainly explicit. However, with the dynamics of progress of technologies and the market changing demands, extensive planning and documentation are quickly becoming obsolete. As such, more flexible methods, called agile methods, have gained popularity. These methods value collective learning and close collaboration between team members. To this day, little research has shown how agile software development supports knowledge management initiatives. This research helps fill this gap by reviewing the related work on agile software development by focusing on and examining knowledge management initiatives in agile organizations. We developed a theoretical model of knowledge management in agile environments. Our findings highlight the way knowledge management is embedded in agile practices, including continuous communication, iterative development, knowledge repositories and engineering practices. It also emphasizes the importance of knowledge management in Information Technology development organizations.