TITLE:
Dynamics of Knowledge in Software Project Development Environments: An Approach Using Affiliation Networks
AUTHORS:
Jorge Luiz dos Santos, Renelson Ribeiro Sampaio, Hernane Borges de Barros Pereira, Marcos Grilo
KEYWORDS:
Social Network Analysis, Affiliation Networks, Method of Reflections, Organizational Knowledge
JOURNAL NAME:
Social Networking,
Vol.10 No.4,
October
29,
2021
ABSTRACT: This work presents an approach to study the diffusion of knowledge in
software development project teams based on the formation of complex social
network structures in a public organization that offers information and
communication technology services. We collected historical data on the
allocation and records of hours worked by people in projects to build an
affiliation network. We applied the method of reflections to analyze the data
obtained. The constructed model enabled the description of the participation of
project team members from the perspective of the creation and diffusion of
knowledge in affiliation networks that describe the participation of people in
projects, mediated by the knowledge and the capabilities developed for the
execution of these projects. A contribution of this work is the construction of
indicators related to the process of creation and diffusion of knowledge in the
context of the execution of software development and maintenance projects,
based on the concepts of diversification and ubiquity applied to the process of
knowledge diffusion; an additional contribution is the presentation of an
application of the method of reflections in an organizational context applied
to the creation and diffusion of knowledge. We found that the application of
management models associated with the collaborative method applied to the
project development process contributed to the joint growth of diversified and
more specialized knowledge alongside the knowledge considered more generic and
ubiquitous. Our results show that contrary to previous expectations based on assumptions established at the beginning
of the study, we concluded that in six of the seven subnetworks obtained in the
period between 2007 and 2013, knowledge based on complex and diversified
capabilities showed a growth proportional to the growth of knowledge related to
the capabilities necessary to more general and ubiquitous activities.