Knowledge discovery and systematization through thematic analysis in software process assessment project

Knowledge is recognized as an essential factor in successful and competitive software organizations. Software organizations acquire, create, systematize and use knowledge in their everyday activities. One of the most efficient ways for discovering, creating and systematizing knowledge is implementation of software process assessment activities. Assessment activities allow investigation of current practice and possible problems, but also discovery and systematization of knowledge stored within an organization. This paper presents an approach to knowledge discovery and systematization in a very small software company. The approach is implemented by using inductive thematic analysis as an additional set of activities within the assessment of software maintenance processes. The developed thematic framework outlines the main issues related to the maintenance activities in the company. This explicit knowledge is available to all employees in the company and forms the basis to be considered in planning future projects. Positive experiences in implementing thematic analysis for discovering and systematizing knowledge in the presented case study will be used for investigating other segments of the practice in similar software organizations.