A Study on Best Practices of Knowledge Management in IT Industry

1. NEED FOR THE STUDY

The two most important assets in software industry are resources human resource and knowledge. Also software industry being resource oriented, it becomes critical that knowledge in the minds of the resources be protected. It is found that, while 26 percent of knowledge in the average organization is stored on paper and 20 percent digitally, an astonishing 42 per cent is stored in employees' heads. Scenarios wherein resources move to newer roles or leave the organization, the knowledge acquired by them is lost. Hence it becomes necessary to safeguard and manage the knowledge acquired by the resources and identify the best practices to implement an effective knowledge management in the company.

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The literature review is carried out in coming sections. An effort is made to understand the literature work carried out in the field of Knowledge Management.

William Ives, Ben Torrey, Cindy Gordon (1997) in their study, Knowledge Management: An Emerging Discipline with a Long History" says that this paper places Knowledge Management in an historical perspective, frames some of the key questions and challenges which must be addressed as it rides the waves of management acceptance, and highlights some of the new opportunities within Knowledge Management, as well as covering some of the traditions upon which it rests.

Alexa Krezel, Edith Brumskill and Zane L. Berge (2001) in their study, "Connecting eLearning and Knowledge Management: The Cases of the Air Force and the Defense Acquisition University" says that eLearning and knowledge management (KM) have been on a converging path since the 90s. Still, we are trying to define how the two may fit together to create actual learned skills. The point at which we acquire skills or have

acquired knowledge is not easily defined. Knowledge is a concept that is made up of several components that include learning, instructional process and managing the acquired knowledge to become either tacit or explicit knowledge.

Morvin Savio Martis (2003) in his study "Content Management System as an Effective Knowledge Management Enabler" says that the value of knowledge as a strategic asset is not only recognized by the knowledge-intensive sectors (software), but by the more traditional sectors (manufacturing) of the economy as well. As the organization grows, the volume of content handled grows enormously and a stage is reached when it becomes impossible to handle all the content manually unless the industries exploit the power of information processing technology.

Ebrahim Randeree (2006) - "Knowledge management: securing the future": Purpose Increased focus on knowledge within firms has not addressed the security implication. This paper aims to examine the implications of knowledge management for security.

Claudia Ringel-Bickelmaier, Marc Ringel (2010) in their study, "Knowledge management in international organizations" says that the purpose of this paper is to review the approaches of international organizations to fostering knowledge management.

3. OBJECTIVE

3.1.PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

3.1.1.

To understand the importance of knowledge management in IT industry.

3.1.2. Identifying the problems and barriers that software companies anticipate during implementation of knowledge management.

3.1.3. To suggest the various methods and best practices which help in effective implementation of the knowledge Management in IT Industry.

3.2.SECONDARY OBJECTIVES

3.2.1.

To understand how companies in IT industry use knowledge management to gain competitive advantage.

4. METHODOLOGY

Software development and software testing projects are identified to collect data from for the project. Data required for study will be collected by asking the participants to fill the questionnaire which would cover various aspects of Knowledge Management viz. Knowledge Capturing, Knowledge organization and sharing, knowledge retention, etc. Data collected is further analyzed and then interpreted to come up to sensible and logical conclusion.

Type Data: Primary data, Secondary data Tools for Data Collection: Questionnaire, Magazines, Case Studies Framework of data analysis: Statistical, finance, software tools.

5. WORK DONE SO FAR

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Identified the problem statement, primary, secondary objectives, and methodology collected the data and materials for the literature review.

6. WORK TO BE DONE

Need to start collect the Primary, secondary data through Questionnaires, Magazines and case studies for further analysis.

7. LIMITATIONS

The study was the first of its kind to look into information and knowledge management in international organizations. The contribution can be used as a starting-point for further in-depth work and as a blueprint for designing knowledge management systems in other international bodies.

8. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

Best practices, ways of improving the implementation of knowledge management in IT industry.

REFERENCES

1. Alexa Krezel, Edith Brumskill and Zane L. Berge (2001), "Connecting eLearning and Knowledge Management" Case study in USA Air force and Defense. 2. Bruce W. Dobbins, Linda Smelser and Zane Berge (2000), "Knowledge Management within a Learning Organization" Thesis on Learning Organization 3. Claudia Ringel-Bickelmaier, Marc Ringel (2010), "Knowledge management in international organizations" Case study of Knowledge Management in International organizations.
4. Karl M. Wiig (1997), "Knowledge Management: An Introduction and Perspective"

Research journal on understanding KM.