LOGOADELMAR ESPLANA

A Study on the Implementation of Semantic Wiki Based Knowledge

Management System for Application Service Providers

(ASP’S) in Managing Software Artifacts

Introduction

Knowledge Knowledge can be either tacit or explicit (Polanyi, 1967).

Tacit - something not easily seen or expressible

Explicit - can be expressed in words and numbers and is more easily communicated

Knowledge Management how organizations create, retain, and share knowledge

(Argote, 1999)

Introduction

Knowledge Management System Tools to effect the management of knowledge and are

manifested in a variety of implementations (Davenport & De Long, 1998) including document repositories, expertise databases, discussion lists, and context-specific retrieval systems incorporating collaborative filtering technologies

Introduction

Application Service Providers In the ASP model, computer-based services are offered by

providers to their customers over the network to take advantage of the provider’s competitive advantage in terms of better resources, systems support, and maintenance schedules, including regular hardware and software upgrades.

Or Software as a Service (SAAS)

Introduction

Semantic Wiki A hybrid solution derived from the strengths of the

Semantic Web (machine processable, data integration, complex queries) and wiki (easy to use/contribute, strongly interconnected, collaboration) technologies.

Software Artifacts Software artifacts are categorized as source code, models,

and documentations.

Background

In the KPMG 1998 survey, results showed that the barriers to effective implementation of knowledge management include:

lack of time to share knowledge (49%) lack of skill in knowledge management (49%) lack of understanding (40%) lack of appropriate technology (26%)

Purpose of the study

To determine how semantic wikis can be used by application service providers (ASPs) as an alternative knowledge management solution for managing software artifacts.

capable of self-learning and self-adapting to today’s requirement of information sharing

Assumptions and Limitation

employees are willing and able to share knowledge employees are given time to document their work companies are committed to knowledge sharing and to the

cost of doing it since the system will only be accessible within the

company’s network, security concerns will not be an issue employees are encouraged by the company to share

knowledge because of the added incentives they will receive

Context of the Problem

Based on the survey conducted by Filemaker International (2007) on over 100 people responsible for IT management within UK businesses with 250 employees or less

Around 64 percent of the respondents believed that silo mentality had something to do with how information is created and used

As the company increases their need to outsource their IT skills and needs requirement, silo mentality also dramatically increases

Context of the Problem

Application Service Providers (ASPs) Company provides software framework to multiple

customers Computer-based services are offered by providers to their

customers over the network to take advantage of the provider’s competitive advantage in terms of better resources, systems support and maintenance schedules which include regular hardware and software upgrades

Statement of the Problem

The inability to locate valuable information when needed is one of the most common issues that knowledge workers are facing today

Knowledge workers spend 15- 25% (1-2 hrs) of time hunting for information, while 60 percent of employees spend more than an hour per day duplicating the work of others (O’Brien, Bernoff, Sorley, & Flemming, 2001)

As a result, employees get 50%-75% of their relevant information directly from other people (Philips, 2007)

Statement of the Problem

The issues that knowledge workers are facing today are not because of the absence of tools, but because the different tools are not integrated.

Many knowledge management implementations have failed because of the focus on technology rather than on creating an atmosphere conducive to knowledge capture and sharing (Gonzales, 2005).

The problem is that maintenance of silo applications now consumes more than 70 percent of the IT budget (Davis, 2006).

Literature Review

WikiWiki weaving heterogeneous software artifacts The goal of the XSDoc Wiki was to reduce the development-

documentation gap by making documentation more convenient and attractive to developers (Aquiar & David, 2005).

Self-organized reuse of software engineering knowledge supported by semantic wikis Self-organized reuse of artifacts from software and system

development using lightweight wiki technology promises a sustainable preservation and availability of business-critical information (Decker, Eric Ras, Klein, & Hoecht, 2008)..

Literature Review

Search for relevant software change artifacts using semantic network The researchers created a set of tools and technologies which

used metadata to assist software engineers in their search for software artifacts in response to change requests.

Accuracy increased as a result of their experimental effort, and the semantic approach led to better recall and precision compared to existing full-text search approaches (Lindvall, Feldmann, Karabatis, Chen, & Janeja, 2009).

Research Methodology

Qualitative Method Identify, Compare, Evaluate and Recommend Solution for Information Sharing Requirements

Compared Word/SVN, email, traditional Wiki and Semantic Wiki solutions

Collaboration, Information retrieval, Information dissemination, and Integration.

Strengths and limitations

Research Methodology

Knowledge-sharing Support in Managing Software Artifacts Evaluated the solution and presented previous and

current studies Requirements of Software Artifacts Documentation

Identified the challenges and evaluated the solution

Results

Solution for Information Sharing Requirements Semantic wikis offer the most functionalities and

flexibilities relative to other solutions for effective and efficient information sharing

Capabilities : support for communication and collaboration provide advanced information retrieval techniques allow machine-understandable domain knowledge to be

shared across application boundaries advanced information dissemination techniques

Results

Limitations lack of user interface capabilities which are available in

MS Word lack of quality printed output occasionally disconnected scenario from network

Results

Knowledge-sharing Support in Managing Software Artifacts Semantic wikis can be used as a coordination and

communication tool for gathering of requirements and sharing of ideas

Semantic wiki can be leveraged by ASP’s for bug tracking, requirements and traceability management, requirement engineering, and documentation

Semantic wiki can be used as an integrated application for advanced searching and context-aware navigation

Conceptual framework: sharing of knowledge across application boundaries

Semantic Wiki

User Interface (UI)

Repository

Software Artifacts

(documents, code, design

etc.)

Metadata(RDF/OWL)

Retrieval component

Version control

systems (SVN)

Database(SQL Server)

Bug tracking

Requirements Management

Semantic-Aware UI Apps

Software Development Plugins

Non-Technical UsersTechnical Users

Client Component

Server Component

Repository

Results

Semantic wiki solutions for today’s common issue of SMEs were addressed in several ways, such as: concept-based rather than language-based searching; question answering rather than retrieval; richer structure content navigation rather than the traditional forward linking.

Semantic wikis have advanced searching and retrieval functionality and can be used for tracing issues due to their advanced content analysis feature.

RSS can be used as a solution for information overload and network overload.

Results

An interesting development in the realization of the semantic web is the acquisition of a company called Powerset by Microsoft. Powerset uses so-called “semantic web” technology that generates results based on an understanding of a word's meaning and the context of its use. “Microsoft's acquisition of Powerset makes perfect sense and is probably the best shot at a disruptive technology that might allow it to leapfrog Google,” says Andrei Hagiu, assistant professor of strategy focusing on technology, at Harvard Business School (Holahan, 2008).

Powerset Semantic Web Search Engine

Results

Requirements of Software Artifacts Documentation

Lessons learned from CMU’s study on each requirement served as a baseline for a better semantic wiki solution

From the CMU study using traditional wikis, the biggest drawback indicated was the inability of the wiki to deal with the creation of drawings.

It was argued that although support for this kind of feature is not available, a solution is not far from reality.

The inability of a wiki to understand architecture was something that the traditional wiki failed to address, but semantic wikis are now capable of.

Results Requirements of Software Artifacts Documentation

Lessons learned from CMU’s study on each requirement served as a baseline for a better semantic wiki solution

(Bachmann & Merson, 2005) From the CMU study using traditional wikis, the biggest

drawback indicated was the inability of the wiki to deal with the creation of drawings.

It was argued that although support for this kind of feature is not available, a solution is not far from reality.

The inability of a wiki to understand architecture was something that the traditional wiki failed to address, but semantic wikis are now capable of.

Gliffy online rich internet application for diagramming

Trac’s integrated software configuration and project management

Results

The requirement for easy access to documentation was comprised of two separate issues: the unstructured nature of the wiki and the accessibility of the wiki when an internet connection is not available.

The issue of a wiki being unstructured is no longer a concern with semantic wikis because they can do more than mere navigation.

Recommendations

For some ASP companies that are not yet using semantic wiki-based technology in their KMS, it is recommended that these ASPs do research to utilize the technology and staff training to maximize the capabilities of semantic wikis in managing their software artifacts.

Any ASP that can implement the semantic wiki-based KMS will benefit their company by having better information sharing within their company and among their clients.

Recommendations

By implementing a semantic wiki-based KMS, an ASP can save money, time, and effort in managing software artifacts for a more competitive and profitable ASP, and it will provide a better work environment and improved access to information among its clients

Questions

ReferencesAquiar, A., & David, G. (2005). WikiWiki weaving heterrogeneous software artifacts. WikiSym '05 (pp. 67-74). San Diego, CA, USA.: ACM.

Bachmann, F., & Merson, P. (2005, September). Experience using the web-based tool wiki for architecture documentation. Retrieved May 25, 2009, from

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/05.reports/pdf/05tn041.pdf

Davenport, T. H., & De Long, D. W. (1998). Successful knowledge management projects. Sloan Management Review.

Davis, M. (2006). Semantic wave 2006 - part-1: Executive guide to billion dollar Markets. A Project10X special report.

Decker, B., Eric Ras, J. R., Klein, B., & Hoecht, C. (2008). Self-organized reuse of software engineering knowledge supported by semantic wikis. Retrieved June 1, 2009, from http://en.scientificcommons.org/40499741

File Maker. (2007). Business information silos survey. Retrieved May 25, 2009, from http://www.filemaker.co.uk/frustrated/downloads/FM_Silo_Ex_Sum.pdf

ReferencesGonzales, J. R. (2005, February). Wiki and the wiki way: beyond a knowledge management

solution. Retrieved May 25, 2009, from http://www.uhisrc.com/FTB/Wiki/wiki_way_brief%5B1%5D-Jennifer%2005.pdf

Holahan, C. (2008, July 1). Microsoft's plan b for search. Retrieved June 5, 2009, from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2008/tc20080630_349921.htm

KPMG Management Consulting. (1998). Knowledge management research report.

Lindvall, M., Feldmann, R. L., Karabatis, G., Chen, Z., & Janeja, V. P. (2009). Searching for relevant software change artifacts using semantic. SAC'09 (pp. 496-500). Honolulu, HI, USA: ACM.

O’Brien, D., Bernoff, J., Sorley, J., & Flemming, G. (2001). Portals squeeze business media. Cambridge, MA USA: Forrester Research, Inc.

Philips, C. (2007, March). Beyond recruiting and retention. Retrieved May 25, 2009, from http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/a/1/2a11a642-2804-4de9-b186-7341768a8803/Energy%20EyeOpener%20FINAL%20presentation

%20May14%20 no%20notes.ppt

ReferencesPolanyi, M. (1967). The tacit dimension. Garden City, NY, USA: Doubleday.