Amrit Tiwana

Knowledge integration in virtual teams: the potential role of KMS

Virtual teams are becoming a preferred mechanism for harnessing, integrating, and applying knowledge that is distributed across organizations and in pockets of collaborative networks. In this article we recognize that knowledge application, among the three phases of knowledge management, has received little research attention. Paradoxically, this phase contributes most to value creation. Extending communication theory, we identify four challenges to knowledge integration in virtual team environments: constraints on transactive memory, insufficient mutual understanding, failure in sharing and retaining contextual knowledge, and inflexibility of organizational ties. We then propose knowledge management system (KMS) approaches to meet these challenges. Finally, we identify promising avenues for future research in this area.

Supporting collaborative process knowledge management in new product development teams

Knowledge centric activities of developing new products and services are becoming the primary source of sustainable competitive advantage in an era characterized by short product life cycles, dynamic markets and complex processes. We view new product development (NPD) as a knowledge-intensive activity. Based on a case study in the consumer electronics industry, we identify problems associated with knowledge management (KM) in the context of NPD by cross-functional collaborative teams. We map these problems to broad Information Technology enabled solutions and subsequently translate these into specific system characteristics and requirements. A prototype system that meets these requirements developed to capture and manage tacit and explicit process knowledge is further discussed. The functionalities of the system include functions for representing context with informal components, easy access to process knowledge, assumption surfacing, review of past knowledge, and management of dependencies. We demonstrate the validity our proposed solutions using scenarios drawn from our case study.

Reconciling user and project manager perceptions of IT project risk: a Delphi study†

Abstract. In an increasingly dynamic business environment characterized by fast cycle times, shifting markets and unstable technology, a business organization’s survival hinges on its ability to align IT capabilities with business goals. To facilitate the successful introduction of new IT applications, issues of project risk must be addressed, and the expectations of multiple stakeholders must be managed appropriately. To the extent that users and developers may harbour different perceptions regarding project risk, areas of conflict may arise. By understanding the differences in how users and project managers perceive the risks, insights can be gained that may help to ensure the successful delivery of systems. Prior research has focused on the project manager’s perspective of IT project risk. This paper explores the issue of IT project risk from the user perspective and compares it with risk perceptions of project managers. A Delphi study reveals that these two stakeholder groups have different perceptions of risk factors. Through comparison with a previous study on project manager risk perceptions, zones of concordance and discordance that must be reconciled are identified.

A Comparison of Transaction Cost, Agency, and Knowledge-Based Predictors of IT Outsourcing Decisions: A U.S.-Japan Cross-Cultural Field Study

As outsourcing evolves into a competitive necessity, managers must increasingly contend with the decision about which software development projects to outsource. Although a variety of theories have been invoked to study the initial outsourcing decision, much of this work has relied in isolation on one theoretical perspective. Therefore, the relative importance ascribed by managers to the factors from these theories is poorly understood. The majority of this work also masks interesting insights into outsourcing decisions by focusing on the information technology (IT) function rather than individual projects as the unit of analysis, where many of these decisions occur. In contrast, prior research at the project level has focused on predicting development performance in the postoutsourcing-decision phases of projects. The objective of this study is to examine the relative importance that IT managers ascribe to various factors from three complementary theories—transaction cost economics, agency theory, and knowledge-based theory—as they simultaneously consider them in their project outsourcing decisions. A secondary objective is to assess the cross-cultural robustness (United States versus Japan in this study) of such models in predicting project-level IT outsourcing decisions. We develop and test a multitheoretic model using data on 1,008 project-level decisions collected from 33 Japanese and 55 U.S. managers. Overall, our results provide novel insights into the relative importance that managers ascribe to the factors from these three theories, their complementarities and occasional contradictions, and offer new insights into the differences among U.S. and Japanese IT managers. Implications for theory and practice are also discussed.

The one-minute risk assessment tool

An analysis of risks in software development, using data from senior IT managers, produced surprising results. Our one-minute assessment tool applies those results to assessing the risks of specific projects.

An empirical study of the effect of knowledge integration on software development performance

Although various software development coordination tools are widely used in practice, no field study has comprehensively assessed the robustness and nature of their impact on the software development process. This paper reports the results of a large-scale field study involving 209 projects in 209 international software development organizations in India, Russia, and Ireland for 209 different American customer organizations. The participating software development organizations were members of the three largest global consortia of software development organizations. The objective of the study was to assess the impact of six key types of development coordination tools on defect reduction, development rework reduction, and cost containment. The quantitative phase of the study was preceded by in-depth interviews in 19 software development organizations. The results demonstrate that the influence of various development coordination tools varies depending on whether is project is routine, conceptually novel, involves novel development processes, or simultaneously involves both types of novelties. Collectively, they have important implications for choosing an optimal mix of coordination tools for different types of projects. Implications for practice are also discussed.

A design knowledge management system to support collaborative information product evolution

The Internet has led to the widespread trade of digital information products. These products exhibit unusual properties such as high fixed costs and near-zero marginal costs. They need to be developed on compressed time frames by spatially and temporally distributed teams, have short lifecycles, and high perishability. This paper addresses the challenges that information product development (IPD) teams face. Drawing on the knowledge intensive nature of IPD tasks, we identify potential solutions to these problems that can be provided by a knowledge management system. We discuss a prototype Knowledge Management System (KMS) that supports linking of artifacts to processes, flexible interaction and hypermedia services, distribution annotation and authoring as well as providing visibility to artifacts as they change over time. Using a case from the publishing industry, we illustrate how contextualized decision paths/traces provide a rich base of formal and informal knowledge that supports IPD teams.

A social exchange architecture for distributed Web communities

Using the foundational lens of social exchange theory and communities of practice, proposes a three‐layer Web‐based architecture to facilitate knowledge integration in digital communities. Reviews the limitations of past collaborative filtering mechanisms and presents a prototype and the underlying mathematical model for the knowledge networking on the Web (KNOWeb) architecture. Further illustrates how real‐time active feedback and valuation mechanisms reinforce social exchange in such communities.

E-services: problems, opportunities, and digital platforms

Services that are delivered over the Internet-e-services-pose unique problems yet offer unprecedented opportunities. In this paper, we classify e-services along the dimensions of their level of digitization and the nature of their target markets (business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer). Using the case of application services, we analyze how they differ from traditional software procurement and development. Next, we extend the concept of modular platforms to this domain and identify how knowledge management can be used to rapidly assemble new application services. We also discuss how such traceability-based knowledge management can facilitate e-service evolution and version-based market segmentation.

Affinity to infinity in peer-to-peer knowledge platforms

Adapting the social paradigm of face-to-face human communication, they promote ad hoc knowledge exchange among peers, leveraging individual expertise at the periphery of the network.