A process-centred experience repository for a small software organisation

Abstract

This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of an experience repository in a small software organisation. The experience repository was developed and installed as part of an ongoing software process improvement effort and uses software process to structure experience and make it available for reuse. The experience repository is accessed through a web-based process guide with experiences related to particular tasks linked directly to the pages describing those tasks. This way experiences, including examples of documents, checklists or unstructured experiences such as anecdotes and lessons learnt can be easily entered and retrieved by users when required. This paper presents the design of the repository, the implementation and preliminary results regarding its acceptance and use.