Knowledge sharing for common understanding of technical specifications through artifactual culture

Context: Software engineering is a knowledge intensive activity that is supported by documenting and sharing the required knowledge through a wide variety of artifacts. Global Software Development (GSD) teams heavily rely on artifacts as a vital means of knowledge sharing. However, there is little empirical knowledge about the key reasons and practices of using artifacts in GSD for knowledge sharing to support common understanding of technical specifications. Objective: This study aims at empirically studying the key motivators, practices, and drawbacks of artifact-based knowledge sharing for achieving common understanding of technical specifications in the context of GSD. Method: We conducted an exploratory case study in an organization that was involved in several GSD projects. Results: Our findings revealed the key challenges that necessitated the use of artifacts for sharing technical specification knowledge. We also present the practices that make up the artifact-based knowledge sharing system in the studied case. Finally, we shed some light on the caveats of knowledge sharing practices adopted by the studied company. The findings can provide useful insights into the artifact-based knowledge sharing practices and how it can be complemented by having certain level of social ties among distributed team members, even through asynchronous means.