Facilitating Internal Work in IT Consultancies Through Efficient Knowledge Sharing : A Case Study of a Swedish IT Consulting Firm

Abstract: The concepts of knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing are commonly reocurring theme in the application of knowledge management in organizations. Effort has been made to facilitate the development of IT consulting firms' knowledge sharing processes to increase their competitive viability on the market. However, due to a high employee turnover rate in projects that are part of IT consulting firms' internal work, a decreased efficiency and structure in IT consultancies' internal knowledge generating work has caused a reduced quality of their products. This theses has evaluated the internal work related to knowledge transfer in a Swedish IT consulting firm by performing a qualitative research approach in the form of semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with a selection of respondents working at the company, and were based on a ser of themes derived from a pre-study and literature review.  The results from the interviews identified various improvement factors in promoting efficient knowledge sharing between IT consultants, such as making clear documentation of conducted work in a common and simplified language, mandatory for off boarding consultants handling over their work to on boarding consultants. The results also suggested the utilization of a common digital platform between consultants, the Scrum methodology, as well as a leader with clear directives. The suggested factors were then implemented in a proposed extended framework of the Knowledge Transfer Process Model (KTPM) described in the literature study.  The conclusion from evaluating the Swedish IT consulting firm further motivates the implemented modifications of the KTPM as key elements to facilitate the utilization of consultants workin in an uncertain work environment with high empoyee turnover rates, as well as helping IT consulting firms that focuses on software development to build a knowledge -sharing compatible environment. There is potential to further explore the are of knowledge transfer within IT consultancies. Hence, future researcg on the subject is recommended.