The impact of process workshop involvement on the use of an electronic process guide: a case study

Many software companies disseminate process knowledge through electronic process guides. A common problem with process guides is that they are not used in practice. Through a case study we investigate how involvement in creating an electronic process guide through process workshops influences the use of the process guide. We interviewed ten software developers and project managers in a medium-size company about how they use a process guide. Workshop participants show a higher degree of usage over time, a larger number of project support functions taken in use, and express more advantages with the process guide. From this we conclude that small and medium-sized software companies should involve users in developing electronic process guides.