How do Practitioners Manage Decision Knowledge during Continuous Software Engineering? (S)

Abstract

Continuous software engineering (CSE) is an agile process that supports lightweight, flexible, and rapid software development. Decision-making is crucial for CSE, and developers need to know the decisions made and the related rationale to evolve the software. This knowledge is called decision knowledge. The management of decision knowledge in CSE environments remains unexplored. The agile manifesto suggests to value working software over comprehensive documentation as well as individuals and interactions over processes and tools. What does this mean for the documentation, exploitation, and sharing of decision knowledge? We report on results from an interview study with 24 practitioners from 17 companies on how decision knowledge is managed during CSE. The practitioners mainly capture decision knowledge in an informal way, for example, in natural language discussions. Wiki and issue tracking systems represent the preferred medium to preserve decision knowledge. Mentioned benefits are an improved decision-making process, accountability, knowledge sharing, and reuse. However, the exploitation of the captured decision knowledge remains partly unclear.