Blockchain Technology: An Analysis of Potential Applications and Uses

This paper will focus on explaining what blockchain technology is, the fundamentals of how it works, and applications of it. By utilizing sophisticated cryptography, a distributed network, a specified order of events the technology is able to create a ledger that cannot be altered due to its existence on many computers that able to detect if the data has been changed or tampered with. To help illustrate the uses of blockchain technology the technical explanation is complemented with real and hypothetical ways that the technology it being used. The use of blockchain technology originated with financial application and has expanded to many industries as new and creative ideas come to fruition

Software development in startup companies: A systematic mapping study

Context: Software startups are newly created companies with no operating history and fast in producing cutting-edge technologies. These companies develop software under highly uncertain conditions, tackling fast-growing markets under severe lack of resources. Therefore, software startups present an unique combination of characteristics which pose several challenges to software development activities. Objective: This study aims to structure and analyze the literature on software development in startup companies, determining thereby the potential for technology transfer and identifying software development work practices reported by practitioners and researchers. Method: We conducted a systematic mapping study, developing a classification schema, ranking the selected primary studies according their rigor and relevance, and analyzing reported software development work practices in startups. Results: A total of 43 primary studies were identified and mapped, synthesizing the available evidence on software development in startups. Only 16 studies are entirely dedicated to software development in startups, of which 10 result in a weak contribution (advice and implications (6); lesson learned (3); tool (1)). Nineteen studies focus on managerial and organizational factors. Moreover, only 9 studies exhibit high scientific rigor and relevance. From the reviewed primary studies, 213 software engineering work practices were extracted, categorized and analyzed. Conclusion: This mapping study provides the first systematic exploration of the state-of-art on software startup research. The existing body of knowledge is limited to a few high quality studies. Furthermore, the results indicate that software engineering work practices are chosen opportunistically, adapted and configured to provide value under the constrains imposed by the startup context

Measuring the Relationship between Startup Success and Job Creation

Understanding the role that start-ups play in labor market dynamics can help economists expedite labor market recovery post-covid-19. This paper runs a regression using OLS least squares estimation to better identify the relationship between job growth rates and start-up survival rates. The regression provide evidence supporting the hypothesis that high rates of start-up survival will correspond with higher levels of job growth rates. Policymakers and entrepreneurs should use these results to inform their priorities as they lead the labor market recovery

Examining the relationship between agile adoption motivation factors and agile practice clusters used by software startups in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Agile software development methodology (ASDM) has been increasingly adopted in organizations. Despite many benefits offered by ASDM, successful ASDM adoption is a big challenge for organizations. Many studies show that these methods were adopted partly by selecting a set of agile practices. Therefore, it is difficult for new adopters to choose agile practice sets that fit their organization needs as ASDM has a big pool of available practices or clusters. Agile practices should be selected based on motivation factors that include the organization needs in order to maximize the benefit of adopting them. The aim of this study is to identify the relationships between organization’s ASDM adoption motivation factors and the agile practices clusters. This study used a quantitative approach to evaluate the relationships between these variables. The study was conducted using a questionnaire with 76 software practitioners from software startups in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The analysis generated 4 clusters; each is associated with a list of practices. These clusters are labeled as project management, quality assurance, software process, and incremental and iterative clusters. This study finds that three adoption motivation factors (a motivation for increased software quality, increased efficiency, or increased effectiveness) are associated with the quality assurance, software process, and incremental and iterative clusters. By understanding these factors in terms of ASDM adoption and which types of agile practice cluster is more suitable will help to increase the success of the agile adoption process. Furthermore, the study will help to understand how the startups selected the practices used. Also, the study could help new startups to easily choose the proper agile practices based on their motivation and needs. The findings will help the organization to select suitable agile practices cluster by matching the motivation factors that correspondingly affect the ASDM successful adoption

Run-time scheduling and execution of loops on message passing machines

Sparse system solvers and general purpose codes for solving partial differential equations are examples of the many types of problems whose irregularity can result in poor performance on distributed memory machines. Often, the data structures used in these problems are very flexible. Crucial details concerning loop dependences are encoded in these structures rather than being explicitly represented in the program. Good methods for parallelizing and partitioning these types of problems require assignment of computations in rather arbitrary ways. Naive implementations of programs on distributed memory machines requiring general loop partitions can be extremely inefficient. Instead, the scheduling mechanism needs to capture the data reference patterns of the loops in order to partition the problem. First, the indices assigned to each processor must be locally numbered. Next, it is necessary to precompute what information is needed by each processor at various points in the computation. The precomputed information is then used to generate an execution template designed to carry out the computation, communication, and partitioning of data, in an optimized manner. The design is presented for a general preprocessor and schedule executer, the structures of which do not vary, even though the details of the computation and of the type of information are problem dependent

Software Startups -- A Research Agenda

Software startup companies develop innovative, software-intensive products within limited time frames and with few resources, searching for sustainable and scalable business models. Software startups are quite distinct from traditional mature software companies, but also from micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises, introducing new challenges relevant for software engineering research. This paper's research agenda focuses on software engineering in startups, identifying, in particular, 70+ research questions in the areas of supporting startup engineering activities, startup evolution models and patterns, ecosystems and innovation hubs, human aspects in software startups, applying startup concepts in non-startup environments, and methodologies and theories for startup research. We connect and motivate this research agenda with past studies in software startup research, while pointing out possible future directions. While all authors of this research agenda have their main background in Software Engineering or Computer Science, their interest in software startups broadens the perspective to the challenges, but also to the opportunities that emerge from multi-disciplinary research. Our audience is therefore primarily software engineering researchers, even though we aim at stimulating collaborations and research that crosses disciplinary boundaries. We believe that with this research agenda we cover a wide spectrum of the software startup industry current needs

The Impact of Business Ecosystem and Lifecycle on Start-up Creation Process – A Case Study of Indonesian Software Technology Start-ups

Establishing start-ups with a higher level of maturity requires a higher level of techniques, methods, and tools. However, presently established start-ups still encounter difficulties in determining how to quantify their performance and resilience with knowledge of the start-up development process. This study intends to investigate and evaluate the features of the start-up ecosystem throughout its existence. It employed an in-depth case study through interviews and observations to better understand the start-up ecosystem and lifecycle of Indonesian software technology start-up companies. This study utilized a qualitative approach based on multiple explanatory case studies. By providing a conceptual understanding of eight fundamental elements of the start-up ecosystem and lifecycle processes, this study contributes to the identification and investigation of start-up enterprises. The findings provide insight into how to describe start-up enterprises through a multiple-case study. This study discovered that each stage of the start-up lifecycle has a distinct emphasis on improving the ecosystem in order to create a more resilient start-up company

Failure factors of technological driven start-ups: datris solutions case study

Dissertação de mestrado em International BusinessThis internship report reflects the status and evolution of the technological driven start-up, Datris Solutions, which is a start-up focused on exploring opportunities in the open data and membership management applications sectors. Datris was created in 2015 and presently, in 2018 has yet to release a finished product that can be used to generate revenue. Continuous issues afflict the development of the start-up’s team and products which resulted in the slow progress and evolution of the two. In an attempt to pump fresh ideas and motivation into the current start-up’s team members, additional personal was hired, in this case a marketing research intern to assist the team in every marketing related effort with special focus for marketing research. This created the adequate scenery for an internship in the area of International Business since it allowed a look into the development and evolution of a young technological driven startup in a foreign country. The knowledge gained during the regular theoretical modules of the International Business masters classes provided the necessary tools to assess an international business/start-up health and the insight to provide advice on what would be the best suggestions to increase the start-up’s productivity, development and how to develop an accurate market research. With that in mind, this internship report will focus on assessing the current factors that are inhibiting the development and growth potential of technological driven start-ups. By identifying, analysing and comparing them to the literature research findings regarding failure factors that inhibit technological start-up development, we hope to contribute to the current literature. In addition, we will suggest an action plan to reduce the influence of these negative factors to ensure a better survivability rate for the start-up for the years to come.Este relatório de estágio reflete o status e a evolução da start-up tecnologicamente orientada, Datris Solutions, que é uma start-up focada na exploração de oportunidades nos setores de aplicativos abertos de gerenciamento de dados e de membros. A Datris foi criada em 2015 e atualmente, em 2018, ainda não lançou um produto acabado que pode ser usado para gerar receita. Problemas contínuos afligem o desenvolvimento da equipa e dos produtos da startup, que resultaram no lento progresso e evolução dos dois. Na tentativa de impulsionar novas ideias e motivação para os atuais membros da equipa da start-up, foi contratado um membro adicional, neste caso um estagiário de marketing para auxiliar a equipa em todos os esforços relacionados ao marketing com foco especial para pesquisa de marketing. Isso criou o cenário adequado para um estágio na área de Negócios Internacionais, uma vez que permitiu analisar o desenvolvimento e a evolução de uma jovem startup tecnológica num país estrangeiro. Os conhecimentos adquiridos durante os módulos teóricos regulares das aulas de Mestrado em Negócios Internacionais forneceram as ferramentas necessárias para avaliar a saúde de uma empresa internacional / start-up e a visão para fornecer conselhos sobre quais seriam as melhores sugestões para aumentar a produtividade, desenvolvimento e desenvolvimento. e como desenvolver uma pesquisa de mercado precisa. Com isso em mente, este relatório de estágio será concentrado na avaliação dos fatores atuais que estão limitando o desenvolvimento e o potencial de crescimento de startups tecnologicamente orientadas. Ao identificá-los, analisá-los e compará-los com os o que nos diz a pesquisa bibliográfica sobre a falta de start-up tecnológico, esperamos contribuir para a literatura atual. Além disso, sugeriremos um plano de ação para reduzir a influência dos fatores negativos para garantir uma melhor taxa de sobrevivência para o início dos próximos anos