Abstract
ContextStart-up companies have become an important supplier of innovation and software-intensive products. The flexibility and reactiveness of start-ups enables fast development and launch of innovative products. However, a majority of software start-up companies fail before achieving any success. Among other factors, poor software engineering could be a significant contributor to the challenges experienced by start-ups. However, the state-of-practice of software engineering in start-ups, as well as the utilization of state-of-the-art is largely an unexplored area.ObjectiveIn this study we investigate how software engineering is applied in start-up context with a focus to identify key knowledge areas and opportunities for further research.MethodWe perform a multi-vocal exploratory study of 88 start-up experience reports. We develop a custom taxonomy to categorize the reported software engineering practices and their interrelation with business aspects, and apply qualitative data analysis to explore influences and dependencies between the knowledge areas.ResultsWe identify the most frequently reported software engineering (requirements engineering, software design and quality) and business aspect (vision and strategy development) knowledge areas, and illustrate their relationships. We also present a summary of how relevant software engineering knowledge areas are implemented in start-ups and identify potentially useful practices for adoption in start-ups.ConclusionsThe results enable a more focused research on engineering practices in start-ups. We conclude that most engineering challenges in start-ups stem from inadequacies in requirements engineering. Many promising practices to address specific engineering challenges exists, however more research on adaptation of established practices, and validation of new start-up specific practices is needed.
Highlights
Software start-ups are important suppliers of innovation and innovative software products (Baskerville et al 2003), providing products and services that are a significant part to the economy (Startup Compass Inc. 2015)
A combination of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) criteria to define goals and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to select metrics to assess progress toward the goals (Shahin and Mahbod 2007) is a feasible alternative to the “gut feeling” approach described by Olsson and Bosch (2015) and Terho et al (2015)
Shahin and Mahbod (2007) propose a lightweight technique based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to select and prioritize key performance indicators
Summary
Software start-ups are important suppliers of innovation and innovative software products (Baskerville et al 2003), providing products and services that are a significant part to the economy (Startup Compass Inc. 2015). A challenge is that most start-up companies collapse before any significant achievements are realized (Tovstiga and Grossmann 2012). This is explained by market conditions, lack of commitment, financial issues or, put, a bad product idea. Termed software start-ups, these companies share many features with small and medium enterprizes such as market pressure, youth and immaturity, and limited resources (Sutton et al 2000). The start-up context provides flexibility to adapt new engineering practices and reactiveness to keep up with emerging technologies and markets (Giardino et al 2014)
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