Dive Brief:
- Knowledge silos are disrupting developers’ workflows and impeding productivity, research from the 2022 Developer Survey by Stack Overflow shows. More than two-thirds of those surveyed encounter a knowledge silo at least once a week, a number that increases to three-quarters for managers.
- Knowledge silos or gaps emerge when employees struggle to find relevant information within their jobs. One of the contributing problems is nearly a quarter of respondents are not able to use existing tools and resources to find answers, according to the report.
- Almost half of all developers say knowledge silos prevent them from sharing ideas across the organization, which results in disrupted workflows, according to the survey of over 73,000 people. Developers made up nearly three-quarters of the respondents.
Dive Insight:
Knowledge silos are wasting developers’ time and company resources. The survey found that a team of 50 developers spends between 333 and 651 hours searching for answers or solutions per week.
But knowledge silos can be seen as a symptom of a much larger disease: poor retention.
Retaining tech talent is a recurring theme that affects business operations. When businesses lose talent, it can limit growth and modernization.
Now execs have to consider that when employees leave, they take what they know with them. Seven in 10 IT managers said the Great Resignation contributed to organizational knowledge loss, according to a Sinequa survey.
For tech leadership, it’s vital that knowledge-sharing and collaboration applications actually benefit the end user. If not, it's time to pivot
