Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology 15 th January 2017. Vol.95. No.1 © 2005 - 2017 JATIT & LLS. All rights reserved . ISSN: 1992-8645 www.jatit.org E-ISSN: 1817-3195 177 EXPERIENCE BASED FACTORY MODEL FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: ITEM CONSTRUCT VALIDATION ON QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN 1 MASTURA HANAFIAH, 2 RUSLI ABDULLAH, 3 MASRAH AZRIFAH AZMI MURAD, 4 JAMILAH DIN, 5 MOHD ZALI MOHD NOR Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, 43400 Selangor, MALAYSIA. E-mail: 1 mastura.hanafiah@daimler.com, 2 rusli@upm.edu.my, 3 masrah@upm.edu.my, 4 jamilahd@upm.edu.my, 5 mohd.zali@my-newstar.com ABSTRACT Software development is a highly intensive knowledge process. Information, data, knowledge and experiences are accumulated daily and it is crucial that they are managed appropriately for the purpose of sharing and future reuse. Today, software development has spread across geographical boundaries; therefore, the need for knowledge retention has risen, and the need for collaboration among the community of practice has been further in demand. Based on this motivation, we posit a model of managing the experiences of software development process by using experience based factory approach. An initial conceptual model has been constructed based on relevant theoretical frameworks which include knowledge management, experience factory, software development process, community of practice, technology and infrastructure, and influences from managerial and organizational levels. Based on the literature review, questionnaire items have been designed to form the identified latent constructs. A pilot survey has been conducted to verify the questionnaire items and the results are tested against Rasch measurement analysis. By using Rash logit measures, the items’ quality is ensured. Findings indicate that the item fitness is good (0.73), outfit and infit mean square values are very much close to 1, and Z-standardized value is within the expected range. Unidimensionality shows that there is no visible secondary dimension even though the scale category structure is rather high. Nonetheless, there are several misfitting items which are further calibrated and revised for future study. The initial model will be the basis of the future model development. Keywords: Experience Factory, Knowledge Management, Software Development Process, Questionnaire Design, Rasch Analysis 1. INTRODUCTION The advancement of digital world has triggered more competition among software organizations. From traditional desktop to web applications, from normal web to mobile applications, and from mobile to augmented realities, software development has become a prominent industry. Software development involves a lot processes, activities, artefacts and multiple roles. Instinctively, software development accumulates data, information and knowledge each day especially in a fast and productive working environment. They eventually become valuable experiences for both the organizations and the employee themselves. Experiences and knowledge are transferred either from one form to another, or from one person to another. By some means, the people involved in the activities or events gain experiences either through observations, or emotions with respect to the observed event, or making conclusions or hypotheses derived from that observed event and emotion [1]. The accumulation of experiences and knowledge however creates issues for organizations: knowledge are difficult to transfer, errors occur due to lack of knowledge, critical knowledge are only in the hands of few people, unable to perform measurement related to knowledge use, relevant knowledge are lost at critical time, and lack of knowledge sharing process [2]. A recent literature review analysis reveals that there are issues in managing experience and knowledge in software organizations in terms of