Knowledge Sharing for Common Understanding of Technical Specifications Through Artifactual Culture

Context: Software engineering is a knowledge intensive activity
that is supported by documenting and sharing the required
knowledge through a wide variety of artifacts. Global Software
Development (GSD) teams heavily rely on artifacts as a vital
means of knowledge sharing. However, there is little empirical
knowledge about the key reasons and practices of using artifacts
in GSD for knowledge sharing to support common understanding
of technical specifications. Objective: This study aims at
empirically studying the key motivators, practices, and drawbacks
of artifact-based knowledge sharing for achieving common
understanding of technical specifications in the context of GSD.
Method: We conducted an exploratory case study in an
organization that was involved in several GSD projects. Results:
Our findings revealed the key challenges that necessitated the use
of artifacts for sharing technical specification knowledge. We also
present the practices that make up the artifact-based knowledge
sharing system in the studied case. Finally, we shed some light on
the caveats of knowledge sharing practices adopted by the studied
company. The findings can provide useful insights into the
artifact-based knowledge sharing practices and how it can be
complemented by having certain level of social ties among
distributed team members, even through asynchronous means.