There are several reasons to believe that knowledge management for software engineering would be easier to implement than in other organizations. To start with, it is clear that a knowledge management system needs to be supported by appropriate IT technology. While IT technology can be intimidating to many people, this is not the case for software engineers. Instead, they are already accustomed to, and probably willing to try, new software tools, as long as they believe the tools will help them do a better job.
The other obvious benefit with software engineering activities is the fact that all artifacts are already in electronic form and, thus, can easily be distributed and shared. This is not the case in many other design-oriented industries in which the product takes some physical form. An example is interior auto design, which has so many similarities with software design that it can even use the same approaches for managing experience, but which also is different in that the end product is a physical artifact that cannot easily be sent across the world in a second.
The most encouraging fact is probably that knowledge sharing between software engineers already does occur to a large degree. A great example of peer-to-peer knowledge sharing is Google, formerly Deja's Usenet Archive, where software engineers and others share knowledge without any form of compensation. This is encouraging because it shows that software engineers are willing to share their knowledge. Another highly appreciated knowledge sharing forum is Sun’s support for Java programmers , which not only provides discussion forums and knowledge bases on Java technologies, but also offers technology chats with Java experts. These chats are even captured so that the knowledge they encompass does not get lost.
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