Collaborative Working and Knowledge Sharing in the Enterprise Wiki: How Teams Develop Concepts Using Sprints

Abstract

Wikis have long been established in the library sector. Yet, librarians tend to only use them when compiling lists of links or files. The Competence Centre for Non-Textual Materials (KNM) at the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB) rather uses the wiki as a working platform for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and management of tasks and workflows. The KNM team defined an agile sprint workflow and implemented it in the wiki in order to develop requirements specifications for the TIB AV-Portal. The KNM method combines a wiki-based management of workflows with agile methods. This method accelerates complex decision making, structures and standardises the processes, intensifies collaboration, and documents everything in the wiki. The paper presents the execution, roles and artefacts of the KNM sprint workflow. It also shows what the KNM method has in common with Scrum and how it differs from it. The KNM method is not limited to software development. It can be applied to concepts other than requirements specifications, such as research applications, guidelines or manuals.