On facilitating knowledge transfer in software design

This paper presents a discussion of the facilitation of expertise sharing among software design stakeholders. LOUIS, a prototype research tool, helps to capture much of the contextual information and knowledge in early design meetings that are very often lost soon after the meetings are over. Using LOUIS as a basis, we consider knowledge and skill transfer effects in software design tasks. Results from trials indicate that, although not entirely sufficient, process-related knowledge, in the form of argumentation, is useful to software designers who have reason to re-use that knowledge. A list of recommendations on how those knowledge transfer effects can be further facilitated is provided. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.