Software Development Practices and Knowledge Sharing: A Comparison of XP and Waterfall Team Behaviors

April 16, 2007
Jan Chong | Stanford University

My dissertation research explores knowledge sharing behaviors among two teams of software developers, looking at how knowledge sharing may be effected by a team’s choice of software development methodology. I conducted ethnographic observations with two product teams, one which adopted eXtreme Programming (XP) and one which used waterfall methods. Through analysis of 808 knowledge sharing events witnessed over 9 months in the field, I demonstrate differences across the two teams in what knowledge is formally captured (say, in tools or written documents) and what knowledge is communicated explicitly between team members. I then discuss how the practices employed by the programmers and the configuration of their work setting influenced these knowledge sharing behaviors. I then suggest implications of these differences, for both software development practice and for systems that might support software development work.

Speaker Details

Jan Chong is a fifth year doctoral student in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. She is affiliated with the Center for Work, Technology and Organization. Her research interests include the management of technical work, computer supported collaborative work and software engineering. Jan holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Members of the Pair-Programming research team at Stanford include: Robert Plummer, Scott Klemmer, George Toye, Brandon Burr, and Tom Hurlbutt in addition to Larry Leifer and Jan Chong.