An Ontology-based Approach for Developing Systems to Identify Who Knows What in Software Organizations
Abstract
Context: Software development is a knowledge-intensive process, and its success in an organization relies deeply on knowledge sharing. Knowledge management challenges are often increased in agile environments, which involve a lot of tacit knowledge, commonly acquired through experiences and hard to make explicit. Thus, knowledge sharing among practitioners is crucial. However, identifying suitable experts to share specific knowledge is not trivial. It involves not only discovering the individuals with the desired knowledge but also considering other factors that may improve the expert’s responsiveness, such as social connections and availability. Moreover, the data overload problem and the specific nature of the experts’ knowledge can hinder people from finding experts with the required knowledge. Expert-finding systems address this issue by identifying and ranking experts. Developing such systems is challenging and involves complex concepts such as expertise, skill, and knowledge, among others. Additionally, integrating diverse heterogeneous sources that offer evidence of expertise poses a difficulty. Ontologies can be helpful in this matter by providing semantics to data and addressing semantic conflicts that can lead to data misuse or misinterpretation. Objective: We aim to help organizations develop expert-finding systems to identify who knows what in a software organization considering data stored in the organization repositories and non-technical factors that may affect knowledge sharing. Method:We developed iKnow, an ontology-based approach that supports developing systems that use data on skill manifestations to identify who knows what. Results: iKnow was applied to develop the ExpertFY system, which was used by members of a software organization. ExpertFY helped identify experts the members had not identified themselves. Conclusion: the results suggest that iKnow is a useful and promising approach to developing expertfinding systems and ExpertFY improves the identification of who knows what.
Keywords:
Expert-Finding System, Skill, Knowledge Sharing, Ontology
References
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Nicola Guarino, Daniel Oberle, and Steffen Staab. 2009. What Is an Ontology? Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1–17. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-92673-3_0
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Itzel Morales-Ramirez, Matthieu Vergne, Mirko Morandini, Anna Perini, and Angelo Susi. 2015. Exploiting Online Discussions in Collaborative Distributed Requirements Engineering. In Int. i* Workshop.
Muhammad Naeem, Muhammad Bilal Khan, and Muhammad Tanvir Afzal. 2013. Expert Discovery: A web mining approach. Journal of AI and Data Mining 1 (2013), 35–47.
Ikujiro Nonaka. 1994. A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation. Organization Science 5 (1994), 14–37. [link]
Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi. 1995. The knowledge-creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford University Press, New York.
D.E. O’Leary. 1998. Enterprise knowledge management. Computer 31, 3 (March 1998), 54–61. DOI: 10.1109/2.660190
I. Rus and M. Lindvall. 2002. Knowledge management in software engineering. IEEE Software 19, 3 (May 2002), 26–38. DOI: 10.1109/MS.2002.1003450
Vinicius Schettino, Vitor Horta, Marco Antonio P. Araujo, and Victor Stroele. 2019. Towards Community and Expert Detection in Open Source Global Development. IEEE.
Kurt Schneider. 2009. Experience and Knowledge Management in Software Engineering. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Dawit Yimam Seid and Alfred Kobsa. 2003. Expert-Finding Systems for Organizations: Problem and Domain Analysis and the DEMOIR Approach. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce 13 (2003), 1 – 24.
Eva. Semertzaki. 2011. Special libraries as knowledge management centres / Eva Semertzaki. Chandos Oxford. xxii, 314 p. ; pages.
Amitoj Singh, Vinay Kukreja, and Munish Kumar. 2023. An empirical study to design an effective agile knowledge management framework. Multimedia Tools and Applications 82, 8 (March 2023), 12191–12209.
Rudi Studer, V.Richard Benjamins, and Dieter Fensel. 1998. Knowledge engineering: Principles and methods. Data Knowledge Engineering 25, 1 (1998), 161–197. DOI: 10.1016/S0169-023X(97)00056-6
Alhusain Taher, Faridaddin Vahdatikhaki, and Amin Hammad. 2022. Formalizing knowledge representation in earthwork operations through development of domain ontology. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management 29, 6 (24 June 2022), 2382–2414. DOI: 10.1108/ECAM-10-2020-0810 Publisher Copyright: © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited..
Ralf Teusner, Christoph Matthies, and Philipp Giese. 2017. Should I Bug You? Identifying Domain Experts in Software Projects Using Code Complexity Metrics. In 2017 IEEE Int. Conf. on Software Quality, Reliability and Security (QRS). IEEE, Prague, Czech Republic, 418–425.
Wasko and Faraj. 2005. Why Should I Share? Examining Social Capital and Knowledge Contribution in Electronic Networks of Practice. MIS Quarterly 29, 1 (2005), 35. DOI: 10.2307/25148667
David Weiss and James Shanteau. 2003. Empirical Assessment of Expertise. Human factors 45 (02 2003), 104–16. DOI: 10.1518/hfes.45.1.104.27233
Krisztian Balog, Leif Azzopardi, and Maarten de Rijke. 2009. A language modeling framework for expert finding. Information Processing & Management 45, 1 (2009).
Krisztian Balog, Yi Fang, Maarten de Rijke, Pavel Serdyukov, and Luo Si. 2012. Expertise Retrieval. Foundations and Trends® in Information Retrieval 6, 2–3 (2012), 127–256. DOI: 10.1561/1500000024
Carlos Braga, Paulo Santos Jr, and Monalessa Barcellos. 2023. Help! I need somebody. A Mapping Study about Expert Identification in Software Development. In Proceedings of the XXXVII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering (Campo Grande, Brazil) (SBES ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 154–163. DOI: 10.1145/3613372.3613389
Carlos Eduardo Correa Braga, Abraão Jesus dos Santos, and Monalessa P. Barcellos. 2025. Supplementary material of the study "An Ontology-based Approach for Developing Systems to Identify Who Knows What in Software Organizations". DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15768954
Rodrigo F. Calhau, João Paulo A. Almeida, Tiago Prince Sales, Pedro Paulo F. Barcelos, and Giancarlo Guizzardi. 2024. Core-O: A Competence Reference Ontology for Professional and Learning Ecosystems. 16–30. DOI: 10.3233/FAIA241289
Rodrigo Fernandes Calhau and Ricardo de Almeida Falbo. 2010. An Ontology-Based Approach for Semantic Integration. In 2010 14th IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference. 111–120. DOI: 10.1109/EDOC.2010.32
Christopher S. Campbell, Paul P. Maglio, Alex Cozzi, and Byron Dom. 2003. Expertise Identification Using Email Communications. In Proc. of the Twelfth Int. Conf. on Information and Knowledge Management (New Orleans, LA, USA) (CIKM ’03). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 528–531. DOI: 10.1145/956863.956965
R. Carraretto and J.P.A. Almeida. 2012. Separating Ontological and Informational Concerns: Towards a Two-Level Model-Driven Approach. In 2012 IEEE 16th International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing ConferenceWorkshops. IEEE, 29–37. DOI: 10.1109/EDOCW.2012.14
Kimiz Dalkir. 2013. Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. DOI: 10.4324/9780080547367
Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak. 1998. Working knowledge: how organizations manage what they know. Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass.
Nicola Guarino, Daniel Oberle, and Steffen Staab. 2009. What Is an Ontology? Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1–17. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-92673-3_0
Giancarlo Guizzardi. 2007. On Ontology, ontologies, Conceptualizations, Modeling Languages, and (Meta)Models. In Proceedings of the 2007 Conference on Databases and Information Systems IV: Selected Papers from the Seventh International Baltic Conference DBIS’2006. IOS Press, NLD, 18–39.
Morten T. Hansen, N. Nohria, and Tom Tierney. 1999. What’s your strategy for managing knowledge? Harvard business review 77 2 (1999), 106–16, 187.
Hans-Jörg Happel and Stefan Seedorf. 2006. Applications of ontologies in software engineering. In Proc. of Workshop on Sematic Web Enabled Software Engineering"( SWESE) on the ISWC. Citeseer, 5–9.
Gareth Hughes and Richard Crowder. 2003. Experiences in Designing Highly Adaptable Expertise Finder Systems. In Volume 1: 23rd Computers and Information in Engineering Conf., Parts A and B. ASMEDC, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 451–460.
Omayma Husain, Naomie Salim, Rose Alinda Alias, Samah Abdelsalam, and Alzubair Hassan. 2019. Expert Finding Systems: A Systematic Review. Applied Sciences 9, 20 (2019). DOI: 10.3390/app9204250
Shuyi Lin, Wenxing Hong, Dingding Wang, and Tao Li. 2017. A survey on expert finding techniques. Journal of Intelligent Information Systems 49 (10 2017).
Edson M. Lucas, Toacy C. Oliveira, Daniel Schneider, and Paulo S. C. Alencar. 2020. Knowledge-Oriented Models Based on Developer-Artifact and Developer-Developer Interactions. IEEE Access 8 (2020), 218702–218719.
Vitor Mangaravite, Rodrygo L. T. Santos, Isac S. Ribeiro, Marcos Andre Gonçalves, and Alberto H. F. Laender. 2016. The LExR Collection for Expertise Retrieval in Academia. Proc. of the 39th Int. ACM SIGIR Conf. on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (2016).
David W. McDonald and Mark S. Ackerman. 1998. Just Talk to Me: A Field Study of Expertise Location. In Proc. of the 1998 ACM Conf. on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (Seattle, Washington, USA) (CSCW ’98). Association for Computing Machinery, 315–324. DOI: 10.1145/289444.289506
A. Mockus and J.D. Herbsleb. 2002. Expertise Browser: a quantitative approach to identifying expertise. In Proc. of the 24th Int. Conf. on Software Engineering. ICSE 2002. 503–512.
Roziah Mohd Rasdi and Gangeswari Tangaraja. 2022. Knowledge-sharing behaviour in public service organisations: determinants and the roles of affective commitment and normative commitment. European Journal of Training and Development 46, 3/4 (May 2022), 337–355. DOI: 10.1108/EJTD-02-2020-0028
Alan Moraes, Eduardo Silva, Cleyton da Trindade, Yuri Barbosa, and Silvio Meira. 2010. Recommending experts using communication history. In Proc. of the 2nd Int. Workshop on Recommendation Systems for Software Engineering. ACM, Cape Town South Africa, 41–45. DOI: 10.1145/1808920.1808929
Itzel Morales-Ramirez, Matthieu Vergne, Mirko Morandini, Anna Perini, and Angelo Susi. 2015. Exploiting Online Discussions in Collaborative Distributed Requirements Engineering. In Int. i* Workshop.
Muhammad Naeem, Muhammad Bilal Khan, and Muhammad Tanvir Afzal. 2013. Expert Discovery: A web mining approach. Journal of AI and Data Mining 1 (2013), 35–47.
Ikujiro Nonaka. 1994. A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation. Organization Science 5 (1994), 14–37. [link]
Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi. 1995. The knowledge-creating company: how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford University Press, New York.
D.E. O’Leary. 1998. Enterprise knowledge management. Computer 31, 3 (March 1998), 54–61. DOI: 10.1109/2.660190
I. Rus and M. Lindvall. 2002. Knowledge management in software engineering. IEEE Software 19, 3 (May 2002), 26–38. DOI: 10.1109/MS.2002.1003450
Vinicius Schettino, Vitor Horta, Marco Antonio P. Araujo, and Victor Stroele. 2019. Towards Community and Expert Detection in Open Source Global Development. IEEE.
Kurt Schneider. 2009. Experience and Knowledge Management in Software Engineering. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Dawit Yimam Seid and Alfred Kobsa. 2003. Expert-Finding Systems for Organizations: Problem and Domain Analysis and the DEMOIR Approach. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce 13 (2003), 1 – 24.
Eva. Semertzaki. 2011. Special libraries as knowledge management centres / Eva Semertzaki. Chandos Oxford. xxii, 314 p. ; pages.
Amitoj Singh, Vinay Kukreja, and Munish Kumar. 2023. An empirical study to design an effective agile knowledge management framework. Multimedia Tools and Applications 82, 8 (March 2023), 12191–12209.
Rudi Studer, V.Richard Benjamins, and Dieter Fensel. 1998. Knowledge engineering: Principles and methods. Data Knowledge Engineering 25, 1 (1998), 161–197. DOI: 10.1016/S0169-023X(97)00056-6
Alhusain Taher, Faridaddin Vahdatikhaki, and Amin Hammad. 2022. Formalizing knowledge representation in earthwork operations through development of domain ontology. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management 29, 6 (24 June 2022), 2382–2414. DOI: 10.1108/ECAM-10-2020-0810 Publisher Copyright: © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited..
Ralf Teusner, Christoph Matthies, and Philipp Giese. 2017. Should I Bug You? Identifying Domain Experts in Software Projects Using Code Complexity Metrics. In 2017 IEEE Int. Conf. on Software Quality, Reliability and Security (QRS). IEEE, Prague, Czech Republic, 418–425.
Wasko and Faraj. 2005. Why Should I Share? Examining Social Capital and Knowledge Contribution in Electronic Networks of Practice. MIS Quarterly 29, 1 (2005), 35. DOI: 10.2307/25148667
David Weiss and James Shanteau. 2003. Empirical Assessment of Expertise. Human factors 45 (02 2003), 104–16. DOI: 10.1518/hfes.45.1.104.27233
Published
2025-09-22
How to Cite
BRAGA, Carlos Eduardo Correa; SANTOS, Abraão Jesus dos; BARCELLOS, Monalessa P..
An Ontology-based Approach for Developing Systems to Identify Who Knows What in Software Organizations. In: BRAZILIAN SYMPOSIUM ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING (SBES), 39. , 2025, Recife/PE.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2025
.
p. 138-148.
ISSN 2833-0633.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbes.2025.9861.
