Inter-team knowledge sharing : A case study on co-located teams’ drivers and barriers for KS

Abstract: Agile software development is a high-technology environment with several challenges. One of these is how to manage knowledge. Knowledge sharing is an important part of software development and is supported in agile practices, but mainly within teams, and not between teams. There is much research done about knowledge sharing within teams and a current trend is to research knowledge sharing in globally distributed teams. However, there’s little research about knowledge sharing between co-located teams, and what barriers and drivers exist. We conducted a case study within an IT-company with four co-located development teams to answer the research question: What are the drivers and barriers for knowledge sharing between co-located agile software development teams and how do they relate to different contexts.  Ten semi-structured interviews and one focus group was conducted and analyzed by using thematic analysis. This analysis constructed 6 themes, where 15 drivers and 21 barriers were identified. We contribute to the research field by presenting these barriers and drivers and show which barriers and drivers that exist in several contexts. We also relate our findings to other research. By our findings we also contribute to practitioners to understand when forming inter-team strategies for KS there is not only one way to success, but strategies need to be formed in several levels of organization.