Application of a community of practice to improve knowledge sharing in offshoring relations

This paper presents the application of a Community of Practice, supported by a portal, to share knowledge in order to improve the offshore development practices of a global engineering company. The Community of Practice has been implemented in three steps: Seduce, Engage and Sustain. For defining the goals of the CoP a combined approach has been used: top-down and bottom-up. Setting goals, having management commitment and informing employees about the community were not enough to develop a successful community. Therefore, an approach has been developed to identify high priority issues in six different knowledge areas. By identifying high priority issues and assigning moderators employees consider the community to be more important and therefore are prepared to participate in the community.