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

A crowdsourcing framework for stakeholder engagement in funding agency call processes

Public research funding agencies have sought to better involve the general public and other stakeholders in their competitive processes for the allocation of research funding. Such efforts result from the worldwide push towards open science which promotes concepts such as transparency over processes and the involvement/education of diverse stakeholders. One such means by which public research funding agencies have sought to involve diverse stakeholders is through the use of crowdsourcing. However, limited research exists into the use of crowdsourcing by public research funding agencies. Furthermore, as public sector organisations, public research funding agencies face challenges in adopting the use of processes originally designed for the use by the private sector. Evidence shows that public research funding agencies are using commercial crowdsourcing platforms and processes which are not bespoke for their purposes. Numerous challenges are faced by public research finding agencies who seek to use crowdsourcing. First, the crowdsourcing concept has yet to reach maturity, with ambiguity as to what practices form part of the crowdsourcing phenomenon. Second, many existing crowdsourcing frameworks do not bear application to public sector organisations such as public research funding agencies. Third, challenges faced by public research funding agencies in open call processes are not fully understood. Fourth, existing crowdsourcing frameworks do not provide a practical guide for funding agencies as to how to deploy crowdsourcing processes. Last, existing research does not offer guidance for public research funding agencies in the development of science policy surrounding the use of crowdsourcing. To address this gap in the research, an in depth examination of crowdsourcing and its constituent practices was conducted. A crowdsourcing framework was selected and adapted for the purposes of application to public research funding agency call processes. The crowdsourcing framework was applied to data provided by two groups of experts covering the domains of crowdsourcing and research funding. This was completed for the purpose of identifying new practices for use. Thereafter, the crowdsourcing framework was applied to call processes in two public research funding agencies.  This study makes several contributions to both research and practice. First, the study advances a first-of-a-kind crowdsourcing framework adapted for use in public funding agency call processes. Also, this study provides a substantial reflection on crowdsourcing and its constituent practices. The research identified new categories of practices for use by public research funding agencies in accessing crowds. The framework provides practical guidance as to why, when and how crowdsourcing practices can be used. Also, the study provides a series of recommendations for public research funding agencies in the development of science policy. Last, recommendations for future research are presented and the limitations of this research are discussed

A crowdsourcing framework for stakeholder engagement in funding agency call processes

Public research funding agencies have sought to better involve the general public and other stakeholders in their competitive processes for the allocation of research funding. Such efforts result from the worldwide push towards open science which promotes concepts such as transparency over processes and the involvement/education of diverse stakeholders. One such means by which public research funding agencies have sought to involve diverse stakeholders is through the use of crowdsourcing. However, limited research exists into the use of crowdsourcing by public research funding agencies. Furthermore, as public sector organisations, public research funding agencies face challenges in adopting the use of processes originally designed for the use by the private sector. Evidence shows that public research funding agencies are using commercial crowdsourcing platforms and processes which are not bespoke for their purposes. Numerous challenges are faced by public research finding agencies who seek to use crowdsourcing. First, the crowdsourcing concept has yet to reach maturity, with ambiguity as to what practices form part of the crowdsourcing phenomenon. Second, many existing crowdsourcing frameworks do not bear application to public sector organisations such as public research funding agencies. Third, challenges faced by public research funding agencies in open call processes are not fully understood. Fourth, existing crowdsourcing frameworks do not provide a practical guide for funding agencies as to how to deploy crowdsourcing processes. Last, existing research does not offer guidance for public research funding agencies in the development of science policy surrounding the use of crowdsourcing. To address this gap in the research, an in depth examination of crowdsourcing and its constituent practices was conducted. A crowdsourcing framework was selected and adapted for the purposes of application to public research funding agency call processes. The crowdsourcing framework was applied to data provided by two groups of experts covering the domains of crowdsourcing and research funding. This was completed for the purpose of identifying new practices for use. Thereafter, the crowdsourcing framework was applied to call processes in two public research funding agencies.  This study makes several contributions to both research and practice. First, the study advances a first-of-a-kind crowdsourcing framework adapted for use in public funding agency call processes. Also, this study provides a substantial reflection on crowdsourcing and its constituent practices. The research identified new categories of practices for use by public research funding agencies in accessing crowds. The framework provides practical guidance as to why, when and how crowdsourcing practices can be used. Also, the study provides a series of recommendations for public research funding agencies in the development of science policy. Last, recommendations for future research are presented and the limitations of this research are discussed

Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding mechanisms for scientific research funding Agencies – A Preliminary Entity Categorisation Matrix (PECM)

Research has shown that crowdsourcing and crowdfunding are accelerators and facilitators of societal, business and institutional change, presenting numerous potential benefits to the triple helix of government, industry and university. Scientific Research Funding Agencies play an important role in the triple helix and play an important role in the development and instantiation of public policy. E-participation and e-government platforms have invited a new actor to the triple helix in the form of the crowd. The citizen as a member of the crowd presents potential solutions to public needs. This paper shows that whereas numerous models are available for the private and public use of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, a limited number of models are available for use by science funding agencies. Accordingly, this research in progress paper attempts to fill this gap by examining the actors involved in the crowd process and presenting a preliminary categorisation of the associated types of users of the crowd. This paper is part of an overall project that focuses on building a suitable crowd model for these agencies. The research herein advances a Preliminary Entity Categorisation Model (PECM) to facilitate this proces

Choosing the right crowd: an iterative process for crowd specification in crowdsourcing initiatives

Crowdsourcing enables organizations to obtain dynamic solutions from large and diverse crowds of individuals. With the advent of IT-mediated ecosystems crowdsourcing initiatives readily possess a means to mediate, regulate and refine crowdsourcing sub processes including the process of vetting and selecting crowd membership (crowd specification sub process). Despite this fact there is ambiguity in current research as to what constitutes a crowd. Furthermore, traditional crowd selection processes show signs of limited application and are often conducted (i) once, at a fixed stage in the process and (ii) by the process initiators. This research-in-progress paper seeks to address constraints caused by the limited application of these processes. Firstly, a definition of the crowd is formulated from concepts identified in literature. Secondly, an iterative conceptual model is advanced from theory that facilitates the creation of a crowd tailored for tasks of varying size and complexity

Software startups

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

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