Discussion about team assignment topic

Hello and welcome back to KBD’s blog. Last time was all about getting to know the team a bit better so this time we thought we would share some thoughts about our upcoming assignment. We got lucky in the course team assignment topic lottery and got a very pleasant topic. We’ll be doing our assignment together with Solita and our topic is: How to boost learning and knowledge sharing in software development projects?

We got so excited about our assignment that we wanted to base our team name around it. Hence the name Knowledge Boosting Diamonds. All our team members are Information and Knowledge Management students, so we think that the assignment’s theme highlights our studies extremely well. We can also bring some knowledge to the topic from work life and own experiences there, since all our team members are also currently working part time in addition to studies. Also, experience from previous courses and from bachelor’s thesis research and writing will be very helpful for us considering the subject of our assignment. 

We discussed our team goals very carefully. First and foremost, we want this course and assignment to be as thoughtful as possible but also rather fun for us. We believe that having fun and making the best out of every situation is the key for success, so we want “play” during we work hard. We believe this course can be very educating for us so we will make the most out of it. Our goal for the team assignment when grades are considered is either 4 or 5. We are a well-functioning team and know each other’s strengths quite well, so we have good requirements for succeeding. 

 

In connection with the planning of the exercise, we’ll define the implementation responsibilities as well as the roles of the different group members and the mutual division of labor. From the very beginning, we’ll share clear responsibilities with our group members regarding the work. A clear division of tasks will make our work easier and everyone can then focus on their own contribution more intensively. We have done many team assignments together in different courses, thanks to which our group work tactics have been honed quite systematically and we are well aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the group members already. This makes it quite effortless to share responsibilities and roles, schedule and work together.

 

Each member of the group will participate in the exercise and complete it with an equal contribution. We have decided that each group member is equally committed to the work and all are willing to compromise and be flexible about their schedules so that we can meet each other weekly via Microsoft Teams and discuss the content of our work and the results of the study. 

 

Weekly meetings via Teams will make our teamwork better as we also then talk to each other and ask how each member is doing and is everything okay. As said in the beginning, we want to also have fun during this course and assignment, so we’ll make sure that things don’t get too serious. We are all quite goal-oriented persons so making sure that things are sometimes more relaxed is also very important for us. And now especially during Covid-19 we need to make sure to have time for chatting and talking as well, because we can’t meet in person. We are also all very good friends with each other so keeping in touch with each other won´t be a problem for us. 

 

We have contacted our contact person from Solita on Monday 25^th 2021, but he hasn´t replied for us yet. Hence, we are still quite unsure what is expected from us considering the team assignment and what aspects of boosting learning and knowledge sharing in software development projects we are going to dig into. We’ll also distribute concrete tasks for each team member when the assignment and what is expected is clearer. We still discussed some key topics about successful software products and what stakeholders it includes. 

 

The operations of companies have become dependent on information systems and softwares, and today one of the most common delivery projects is an information system or software project. The success of software projects is important because the project often affects all business units in the company. However, the projects are complex, and studies show that about half of software projects fail. A successful project means that the basic goals, costs and schedule of the project are realized, and the software meets the customer's needs. In addition, in a successful software project, the customer and the end users of the software are satisfied with both the project and its output.

 

The success of a project can be viewed from several perspectives. According to Heerkens (2014, Chapter 2), different companies measure the success of a project in different ways. Thus, one project may be successful for another company and unsuccessful for another. There is no single way to define a project as successful in all industries and in all types of projects (DeLone & McLean 1992). Marnewick et al. (2017, p. 1) state that defining project success in software projects is more complex than other projects. Definitions of a successful project in a project business often present a triangle with dimensions of cost, schedule, and scope. The scope of a project refers to the project as a whole. In addition to the project solution and the most important deliverables of the project, it includes the problem for which the project seeks a solution (Heerkens 2014, Chapter 2). The scope of the project therefore means everything that starts from the moment the customer decides to start the project. 

 

A successful software project can be defined in such a way that the basic objectives of the project have been met within the permitted limits, and the output of the project meets the customer's need. The project has also been implemented efficiently utilizing all available capacity. In addition, the customer and the user are satisfied with both the project and its output, ie. the software. With a software delivered in such a project, some of the customer's business processes also develop.

 

Our assignment is about boosting knowledge sharing in software projects. We were thinking of knowledge sharing and two types came to our minds straight away. Information can be distributed in a slightly different way, mainly related to data processing. In this case, we are talking about tacit and explicit information. Tacit knowledge is the knowledge accumulated through a person through experience that is partly conscious and partly unconscious. It can be described as intuition and competence, and in addition, putting it into words can be challenging (Laihonen et al. 2013, p.18) Explicit information is often information dressed in written form that can be stored and transferred with reasonable ease. (Laihonen et al. 2013, p. 18) When information manifests itself in linguistic, numerical and pictorial forms, it is precisely explicit information that is spoken of. Such information is visibly expressed, documented and shared. (Käpylä & Salonius 2013, p. 15) Explicit information is so-called coded information, which can be found in books, articles and tables, for example.

 

Sharing tacit knowledge in software projects should be prioritized very high considering boosting learning. Generally speaking, in software projects usually the people who are developing the software can be a bit not-so-socially-open, so to say. Meaning that the people are extremely good at what they do, coding etc. but they can lack the skills to teach their knowledge to someone else. So, one should focus on tacit knowledge sharing in software projects. 

 

These are our thought for this time. Hopefully we are on the right track and spark some ideas with the readers. Hopefully we’ll get in touch with Solita’s people before the next blog post so then we well have a clearer picture on what direction should our assignment focus. 

 

Until next time!

 

Best wishes,

KBD 💙

 

References in this post: 

 

DeLone, W.H. & McLean, E.R. (1992). Information systems success: the quest for the dependent variable. Information Systems Research. Vol. 3 No. 1, s. 60–95. 

Heerkens, G.R. (2014). Project management. 2nd ed. McGraw Hill. Accessible (referred 26.1.2021): https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/project-management-se- cond/9780071818483/?ar. 

 

Käpylä, J. & Salonius, H. (2013). Tietojohtajan taskukirja, Tietojohtamisen näkökulmia aluekehittämiseen. Tampere: Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto, Tietojohtamisen tutkimuskeskus Novi – Juvenes Print

 

Laihonen, H., Hannula, M., Helander, N., Ilvonen, I., Jussila, J., Kukko, M., Kärkkäinen, H., Lönnqvist, A., Myllärniemi, J., Pekkola, S., Virtanen, P., Vuori, V., Yliniemi, T. (2013). Tietojohtaminen. Tampere: Tampereen Teknillinen Yliopisto, Tiedonhallinnan ja logistiikan laitos. Tietojohtamisen Tutkimuskeskus Novi - Juvenes Print.

 

Marnewick, C., Erasmus, W. & Joseph, N. (2017). The symbiosis between information system project complexity and information system project success. AOSIS, Cape Town.