The effect of knowledge management on perceived software process improvement. Mediating effects of critical success factors and moderating effect of the use of information technology
| Pages | 546-567 |
| Date | 11 November 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/VJIKMS-11-2018-0106 |
| Published date | 11 November 2019 |
| Author | Mitali Chugh,Nitin Chanderwal,Amar Kumar Mishra,Devendra Kumar Punia |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Knowledge management,Knowledge management systems |
The effect of knowledge
management on perceived
software process improvement
Mediating effects of critical success factors
and moderating effect of the use of
information technology
Mitali Chugh
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India
Nitin Chanderwal
Department of Information Systems, Indian Institute of Management (IIM),
Shillong, India
Amar Kumar Mishra
Institute of Management Studies, Ghaziabad, India, and
Devendra Kumar Punia
Corporate IT, Paras Healthcare Pvt ltd, Gurgaon, India
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to present insights on the relationship between perceived software process
improvement (PSPI) and information technology (IT)-enabled knowledge management (KM). Moreover, the
study provides an understanding of the mediating effect of critical success factors (CSFs) for effective IT-
enabledKM on the previously mentioned relationship.
Design/methodology/approach –The respondents in the study involved employees in the software
engineering (SE) organizations in national capital region in India. The structured equation modeling
technique carried out through IBM.SPSS.Amos.v21-EQUiNOX was used to develop and evaluate the
proposed framework. The proposed hypothesis testing has been carried out by path analysis using SPSS
process macro.
Findings –The findings of the empirical study reveal that a significant relationship exists between the
variables under investigation.Moreover, it was observed that CSFs act as a mediator between PSPI and IT-
enabled KM. The identified factors are associated with various aspects as managerial, infrastructure,
financial, systems and processes for IT-enabled KM. IT acts as a moderator between KM and PSPI and
facilitate the various phases of KM as knowledgecreation, storage and retrieval, sharing and application of
knowledge.
Practical implications –The present study introduces a framework for identifying and applying the
CSFs that influence the KM initiatives for PSPI in an SE organization. The practitioners can use the
CSFs for assessing the performance (strengths and weaknesses) in process of software development and
KM practices. Researchers can use the resultant framework proposed in the empirical study for PSPI,
IT-enabled KM, and in academia, the framework supports to organize the study of IT-enabled KM for
PSPI.
Originality/value –The general comprehension of the relationship between IT-enabled KM and PSPI
for Indian SE organizations is scarce in the literature. Following, the analysis expands the earlier
VJIKMS
49,4
546
Received21 November 2018
Revised12 June 2019
Accepted20 July 2019
VINEJournal of Information and
KnowledgeManagement Systems
Vol.49 No. 4, 2019
pp. 546-567
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2059-5891
DOI 10.1108/VJIKMS-11-2018-0106
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2059-5891.htm
research by exploring the mediating role of the CSFs and the moderating effect of IT for KM and PSPI
relationship.
Keywords Critical success factors, Knowledge management, Software process improvement,
Empirical software engineering, Indian software engineering organization
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Since the 1990s, academicians and practitioners in the software development community
have shown a special interest in software process improvement(SPI); the increasing number
of studies related to trends and developments in SPI demonstrates this Fuggetta and Di
Nitto, 2014,Gruhn, 2002,Hall et al. (2002) andUnterkalmsteiner et al. (2012). The search to
continuously improve the quality has been a problem for several years and software
engineering (SE) organizationsin this day and age are aware that one of their basic issues is
to successfully developthe software process.
SPI aims to develop improved quality, dependable and efficient software to enhance
client satisfaction. The need for improvement in the quality of software has resulted in SPI
(Samalikova et al.,2014). SE organizations have turned to SPI to enhance the quality and
efficacy of their software processes. To meet the demands of clients and business needs,
software processes must be flexible, technically advanced and should deliver timely
outcomes. The success of any software organization is reliant on its ability to predict and
carry out the processes related to the products it can develop. SPI lays emphasis on the
resolution of several process-relatedproblems resulting from an ad hoc approach to software
processes while aiming to achieve the best solutions for process issues all the way through
the software developmentlife cycle (Lee et al.,2016).
The reference models capability maturity model (CMM), IDEAL, BOOTSTRAP and SPICE
offer guidelines for SPI, and thus, facilitate improvement of the software product. Similar to
perceptions of competition in manufacturing, the elementary idea in SPI is a reduction in cycle
time and budget and improved software quality; this is achieved by improving software
process capability (Harter et al., 2000). A software process is a comprehensible group of
practices, managerial structures, technologies, techniques and artefacts that are necessary to
design, develop, implement and maintain software products. Software quality management
claims that the software product quality is greatly dependent on the software process used to
develop it. The major issues in the software industry include delivery of the final software
product recognizing the due constraints of time and cost with a high level of customer
satisfaction. When SE organizations have the precise and refined software processes along
with methodical tasks for quality assurance, they will be able to deliver high-quality products.
Isolating the areas where defects arise in the course of the development and taking
corrective and preventive actions is vital; this decreases budgets and ensures high-quality
products (Organization, G.I. and Standardization, 2015). The inefficiency of systematic
practices is commonly due to the lack of knowledge requirements as in process management
and measurements that are required when empirically estimating a software development
process (Söylemez and Tarhan, 2018). Moreover, SE organizations require technological setups
for management of software process knowledge as a result of which, users can learn, use and
adapt the process followed in software development by means of repositories that foster
knowledge management (KM). Present-day SE organizations can access huge amounts of data;
however, they are deprived of insights on how to get the best advantage from this.
The software developmentlife cycle models such as spiral, V-model, agile, etc.,define the
chores and deliverables forsoftware creation. In broad-spectrum, they comprise six phases,
The effect of
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