The wiki as an integrative tool in project work

Abstract

The paper provides insights on how wikis support project work and what characteristics of wikis make them adequate for this purpose. The findings are based on a case study of software engineering projects in an educational setting. Project wikis are found to serve an integrative role along several dimensions of project work, enabled by the flexibility and automatic support for capturing history offered by the technology. The findings demonstrate that a project wiki can serve as a knowledge repository, a means for staging the project, a coordination mechanism, and a shared workspace. To many projects in need of project management and collaboration support, project wikis should be seen as an attractive, lightweight, all-purpose alternative.