Improving architectural knowledge management in public sector organizations - An interview study

Abstract

Architecting software systems is a knowledgeintensive activity. It requires significant knowledge about architecting in general, but also about domains and technologies. Such knowledge should be managed systematically to make it available throughout the whole software development cycle (e.g. to facilitate maintenance). Architectural knowledge management (AKM) literature covers organizations in the private sector (e.g. software vendors). However, there is a lack of studies on AKM practices in public sector organizations (e.g. municipalities), even though AKM practices in the public sector are immature. Therefore, we propose applying lessons from AKM practices found in the private sector to address AKM challenges in the public sector. Thus, we conducted an interview study with four public and four private sector organizations. We identified challenges for AKM in the public sector. Then, we derived solutions from the private sector to the challenges in the public sector. The main challenges in the public sector are vaporization of architectural knowledge, insufficient knowledge sharing, and organizational cultures that do not encourage AKM. Solutions to these challenges include community building, improved tool support, quality control and management support. The results help improve AKM practices in the public sector.