Expert Group Knowledge Triggers: When Knowledge Surfaces

Abstract

Specialised knowledge is a key component of success in an organisational context that resides in the expertise of the organisation's personnel. To explore this situation, an ethnographic case study was chosen in which data was collected from a software development project. Extempore verbal exchanges occur through the interplay of project team members in weekly meetings, as the software was tested, analyzed, and altered in accordance with the customer's needs. Utilizing tacit knowledge from the project members as well as the group, new tacit knowledge surfaces and spirals, which allows it to build over time. Five extempore triggers surfaced during the research generated through explicit stimuli, allowing project members to share and create new knowledge. Through the use of ideas developed by Husserl and Heidegger, this study has cast some light on verbal exchanges that, through their interjection, allow significant learning to take place. The theoretical development places these learning triggers in an interpretive framework, which can add value to other software development projects.