The industrialisation of software production - a knowledge management perspective

[摘要] This research utilises theories of organisational knowledge creation from the field ofknowledge management to analyse the manner in which the industrialisation of thesoftware development industry is likely to occur. The aim of the research is to prove thefollowing hypothesis:If the software development industry moves towards industrialisation, thenknowledge assets in the format of universal production templates will come intobeing.The research commences by providing background information on the state of practiseof software engineering by giving an overview of the changes in the industry over thepast four decades.The software development industry is consequently presented from the viewpoint of theproponents of a craftsmanship based approach to software development, and from theviewpoint of those proposing that industrialisation will offer a solution to the problemsbesetting the industry. In this discussion the terms industrialisation as well as economiesof scale and scope are defined. Potential paths and drivers that will allow theindustrialisation of the industry are presented – software factories as a path towardsindustrialisation, and cloud computing as a driver for industrialisation.In order to supply a knowledge management perspective, the theories of Ikujiro Nonakaand Max Boisot are presented. These theories assume different perspectives on thecreation of organisational knowledge, but an attempt is made to reconcile thedifferences between the two theories. Particular attention is paid to the economicmeaning and implications of knowledge, information and data as factors of production.The concept of knowledge assets are examined in detail, and placed into the context ofsoftware development.In the last chapter the research and conclusions of the previous chapters areconsolidated, to prove the central hypothesis of this work.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University