knowledge sharing in IT projects workplace.
Limitations Low number of interviews conducted, 15, thus reducing the chances of uncovering other problems.
Future research Continue investigations on the subject to construct solution-oriented knowledge and to develop practical artifacts to aid solving existing problems.
Study 3 - The Integration of Social Media Collaborative Tools To Support Knowledge Sharing in IT Projects: An Affordance-Based Perspective
Findings overview Proposition of a framework to assist IT project managers, contributing to the solution of KS problems identified in the literature and in practice.
Contribution to
thesis’ objectives Development and evaluation of the framework.
Contribution to knowledge
The development process adds to the knowledge base of design and an empirical validation of the framework added to the literature.
Limitations Research time limitations hindered the conduction of further focus groups, and the work on the framework’s improvements identified in the evaluation.
Future research Investigate the efficiency of the framework when used in a real-world project environment.
INTEGRATIVE CONCLUSION
By means of following the sequence of steps of the process model adopted, the set of studies produced in this thesis met all the specific objectives proposed. Studies 1 and 2 met the first objective; study 3 met the second and the third objectives; the publication of the studies the possible use of the framework in organizations met the fourth objective. As a result of achieving the four specific objectives, the primary objective and the research question were both addressed.
Source: Adapted from Costa et al. (2019)
in-depth and empirically grounded understanding of the difficulties in project workplaces. In this regard, a number of problems were uncovered, as well as the fact that most interviewees mentioned the usage of social media integrated tools, particularly in distributed teams, and emphasized the importance of usability and accessibility.
Social media tool usage reported by the interviewees concentrated on just a few tools:
wikis, instant messengers, videoconferencing, shared repositories, and issue trackers. In addition, it was also reported that the intense use of traditional tools such as emails and file system directories for storing and sharing knowledge. The study contributed to the literature on knowledge management by providing a better understanding of collaborative tool use to support knowledge sharing and by uncovering organizational, individual, and technological knowledge sharing barriers in the specific context of IT projects. Four subclasses were identified and described in the class of "problems of KS in IT projects": i) familiarity and suitability of KS tools; ii) acquisition, infrastructure, and maintenance of KS tools; iii) limitations on the use of KS tools; and iv) knowledge management.
The findings of the first two studies motivated the choice of the research problem to be addressed: the need for guidance on the integration of social media technologies to support IT project managers in sharing knowledge. In this regard, it was decided to develop and evaluate a framework that could contribute to the problem solution. This was done and described in the third study, to accomplish the second and third specific objectives.
Based on a comprehensive literature review and eighteen interviews conducted with participants of agile projects, the second specific objective was achieved, i.e., "Propose a framework grounded on the integrated use of social media tools using the affordance perspective." Additionally, the completeness, the complexity, the ease of use, and the impact of the framework were evaluated by four senior project managers in a focus group meeting, when the third specific objective, "evaluate the definitive version of the framework developed," was completed.
The application of DSR enables the experience of joining theoretical foundation to develop an artifact with its application in a real-world environment (Narazaki et al., 2020).
Considering such a perspective, this thesis will provide a deeper understanding of the addressed subject, bringing benefits to the communities of researchers and practitioners in project management and knowledge management in three aspects: i) the process of developing the artifact, using the DSR method and the theoretical lens of affordances, will contribute to improving the knowledge base of design; ii) a framework on the integrated use
of SM in the dynamics of KS in IT projects will be available for practitioners; and iii) an empirical validation of this framework will be added to the literature.
From the innovative point of view, the framework developed has original features if we consider that it is an artifact specifically created for IT project participants and validated by their peers. In the process model applied, not only is the technical point of view considered, but users' objectives and needs are also considered, as well as the organizational context, influencing the extent of use of the resources offered (Sun et al., 2019). Therefore, one can count on the potential of using the framework to facilitate KS activities in an environment that is in itself stimulating and conductive, potentially enabling the generation of new knowledge and skills through collaboration and sharing of knowledge in IT projects.
Additionally, the version of the framework to be made available for immediate use can add to project managers’ work the benefits of knowledge shared and potentially contribute positively to the good results of IT projects, as indicated by authors like Sarka and Ipsen (2017), who claim that the use of SM can help IT project members, such as software developers, to share knowledge about their needs to achieve project goals.
When it comes to the economic aspect, making a free SM artifact available should contribute to reducing costs in the organizations where it is adopted. Knowledge sharing resulting from the use of the artifact between project teams, stakeholders, and customers, for example, can possibly generate benefits with a potential cost reduction effect with time, such as preventing mistake repetition, avoiding knowledge recreation, reducing expertise loss, leveraging existing knowledge, and supporting decision-making (Chaves et al., 2018; Kinder, 2020). Besides, the adoption of INT-SM4KS adds no cost to the organization.
The fourth and last specific objective, "Convey to scholars and practitioners the findings of the work completed.", corresponded to the last phase of the work process followed. It was achieved with the submission of the studies in this research to conferences and journals.
Moreover, this research will promote the dissemination of academic knowledge in organizations, assisting managers and other professionals who wish to introduce or manage the use of integrated SM in their workplace, especially if they are unsure of how it can be done. Furthermore, it is expected that employees of the firms using the framework will have a better awareness of the advantages offered by SM to support the dynamics of KS in IT projects. In this light, we argue that all the objectives of this thesis have been met.