Questions regarding knowledge engineering and management

Abstract

Knowledge is considered a key asset in most organizations. Ineffective knowledge engineering and management practices can lead to disastrous outcomes. This paper aims to raise questions regarding knowledge within distributed software engineering teams through two perspectives. First, some examples of ineffective practices will be discussed and used to reflect on the possible causes which contributed to the disastrous outcomes. These examples are used to determine gaps in knowledge engineering practices. Second, tools our research team has developed are used as case studies of alternative approaches to knowledge management. Regarding knowledge through both these perspectives highlights the need to articulate social and cultural knowledge. These perspectives also raise questions regarding knowledge management and engineering. © 2010 IEEE.