Automated software engineering knowledge transfer: A case study on small and medium-sized software enterprises in Thailand

• ASE knowledge transfer activities were somewhat successful in increasing the awareness and the adoption of ASE tools and techniques in four Thai SSMEs. • Knowledge transfer activities should be tailored to the needs of the SSMEs. • The support from researchers is crucial for the successful adoption of ASE tools and techniques in SSMEs. • The study involving SSMEs needs to be aware of their rapid changes of teams and projects. Knowledge transfer of ASE tools and techniques to Small and Medium-sized Software Enterprises (SSMEs) is a challenging task due to their limited resources. The presented case study performed knowledge transfer interventions within four SSMEs in Thailand, using multiple activities including training, online questionnaires, ASE tool adoption, retrospective meetings, and an overall project evaluation. We found that while the knowledge transfer activities were successful in increasing awareness, the degree of adoption success varied significantly. The companies successfully adopted SonarQube, a tool with a low adoption cost, but struggled to implement unit testing, which demands a high, distributed effort from the entire team. The key lessons learned from this project are that (1) knowledge transfer activities with SSMEs should begin with foundational practices over advanced ASE techniques, (2) ASE tools with low adoption cost and wide benefits (SonarQube) lead to more successful adoption than tools with high adoption cost (unit testing), (3) the researchers must overcome the knowing-doing gap by providing embedded support to the SSMEs, and (4) future knowledge transfer projects must include SSMEs as one of the main target groups.