Another test
Recorded history is made possible through the transference of knowledge. The pyramids of Egypt and biblical stories live on because they were stored and transferred. The primary purpose for this is not just in its preservation but that it forms a basis of learning, evolving, and changing. This in effect makes knowledge management principles the lifeline of most organizational growth (4) which also accounts for the yearly increase of scholarly articles and interest garnered by the discipline (Knowledge Management(s))[3]. But as with most things in life, knowledge is only good when it is actively used to progress change. Knowledge Management (KM) is the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge or information-based assets says Tom Davenport (Davenport, 1994). This is one of the earliest definitions of KM but earlier occurrence of the use of the term KM can be traced to 1987 when McKinsey used it to apply to an internal study on information handling and utilization (Mclnerney and Koenig, 2011). Knowledge Management as an area of interest has evolved in its meaning and application areas and provides a rich informative environment where R&D, open communication, and information access fosters (2). It is effective when different sections of the organization contribute to its sustained structure and draw lessons from it(5). KM has been known to help organizations create situational awareness…(2) that helps them deal with process frictions and events… but there are still many challenges with implementing KM structures and effectively benefiting from it (5). This is largely due to the diversity in organizational cultures and the fluidity of abstractions when it comes to knowledge generation, transference, and control across multiple organizations. The major concerns/challenges experienced by organizations as it relates to KM are (3,6,7): • Which knowledge is considered important? In this broad spectrum, the questions of transition from tacit to explicit knowledge is asked. Beyond what is important, how information is quantified mapped and documented across varying departments with slightly varying meanings is also considered. • Information vetting. What are the ACID properties and who is responsible for it? The authenticity of the information deposits? What is the timeline for its relevance, change control and who implements updates and changes. • How do we encourage participatory knowledge sharing when that shared knowledge could lead to redundancy and job loss? The benefits and damages of implementing a reward system for knowledge participation. Specialization and generalization in information sharing and rights to intellectual property. Example, if what makes you an expert is now common knowledge, are you still an expert? • How do we ensure relevant information is accessible by all who need it in a timely manner? • How do we store information for easy identification and retrieval as well as security and accessibility/control concerns • Classification between public domain-based knowledge and private proprietary knowledge… The focus of this work, however, is a shift from traditional teams to global project teams with a focus on practices within agile teams. By global software teams, we mean cross-functional teams working in remote environments or virtually on a software project(1). Agile fosters an environment of growth, thought sharing, participation, and iterative learning (8) but these activities are human-centric which are optimized in co-located environments. The question of how best knowledge management principles can be utilized in remote environments and be used to enable business agility and innovation is a relevant topic within academia and industry. This work looks to explore existing approaches and proposes a slightly different method to approaching knowledge management as an enabler in remote environments. This work is divided into sections. Section two talks about the search and methodology applied as well as justifications. Section three explores relevant literature and summarizes key finds using a tabular structure for effective comparison and identification. Section four introduces a modified outlook to knowledge management and concludes the work.