Initial minimum viable product development in software startups:a startup ecosystem perspective

Abstract Context: Software startups are new companies that aim at developing innovative software-intensive products that stand out from those of other companies in the target market. A successful startup tries to scale its business rapidly, which in turn leads to job creation and an increase number in local products. Product development is an essential aspect of a software startup’s business, and therefore it is important to have a suitable startup ecosystem around a startup to support a new product idea from conception to development to a minimum viable product (MVP) and finally to a full-fledged product. Objective: The objective of this doctoral research is to understand the effect of the startup ecosystem elements on an initial MVP development in software startups and thereby assist startup companies in developing successful products. Method: To achieve the objective, two multivocal literature reviews and multiple empirical studies were conducted to examine: a) the elements in a startup ecosystem, b) initial MVP development in software startups, and c) the effects of startup ecosystem elements on the initial MVP development phase. Results: This doctoral research identified eight main elements in the startup ecosystem that affect the startup and its product development. Additionally, it was found that a product idea is based on a problem experienced by customers or on an unserved customer need. The requirements for developing an initial MVP from the product idea usually come from internal sources, and the elicited requirements are stored in text documents and prioritized based on their value to customers and stakeholders. These requirements are converted into product features, of which some can be used to develop a prototype that can act as an initial MVP. Furthermore, it was observed that the startup ecosystem elements can influence the initial MVP development phase. For instance, supporting organizations such as incubators and accelerators affect initial MVPs by assisting inexperienced founders with training and mentoring during MVP development. Conclusion: A prototype can be used as an initial MVP. Also, experienced founders prefer to develop an initial MVP by themselves, while, inexperienced founders need support from supporting organizations in a startup ecosystem during initial MVP development.Tiivistelmä Konteksti: Ohjelmistoalan startup-yritykset ovat uusia yrityksiä, jotka pyrkivät kehittämään innovatiivisia tuotteita monille eri kohdemarkkinoille. Uuden yrityksen menestyksekkään käynnistämisen tavoitteena on nopea kasvu, mikä puolestaan luo työpaikkoja ja nostaa kotimaista tuotetarjontaa markkinoilla. Koska tuotekehitys on tärkeä osa ohjelmiston käyttöönottoa, on tärkeää, että uuden yrityksen ympärillä on olemassa sopiva ekosysteemi, joka tukee uutta tuoteideaa konseptista pienimmän toimivan tuotteen kehittämiseen ja edelleen täyteen tuotteeseen. Tavoite: Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on ymmärtää startup-ekosysteemin roolia ensimmäisen pienimmän toimivan tuotteen kehittämisessä ohjelmistoalan startup-yrityksissä ja sen kautta auttaa startup-yrityksiä menestyvien tuotteiden kehittämisessä. Menetelmät: Tutkimustavoitteen saavuttamiseksi tehtiin kaksi kirjallisuuskatsausta sekä useita tapaustutkimuksia, joissa tarkasteltiin a) startup-ekosysteemin elementtejä, b) ensimmäisen pienimmän toimivan tuotteen kehittämistä ja c) startup-ekosysteemin elementtien vaikutusta ensimmäisen pienimmän toimivan tuotteen kehittämisvaiheessa. Tulokset: Tutkimuksessa tunnistettiin kahdeksan tärkeää elementtiä startup -ekosysteemissä, jotka voivat vaikuttaa suoraan tai välillisesti yrityksen käynnistämiseen ja sen tuotekehitykseen. Lisäksi selvitettiin, että tuoteidea perustuu asiakkaiden kokemiin ongelmiin tai täyttymättömiin tarpeisiin. Pienimmän toimivan tuotteen vaatimukset ovat yleensä peräisin yrityksen sisäisistä lähteistä. Vaatimukset on tallennettu tekstidokumentteihin, ja ne priorisoidaan asiakkaille ja sidosryhmille syntyvän arvon mukaan. Vaatimukset muutetaan tuoteominaisuuksiksi, joista osaa voidaan käyttää, kun kehitetään prototyyppiä ensimmäiseksi pienimmäksi toimivaksi tuotteeksi. Edelleen havaittiin, että startup-ekosysteemin elementit voivat vaikuttaa pienimmän toimivan tuotteen kehittämisvaiheeseen. Esimerkiksi tukiorganisaatiot, kuten yrityshautomot ja -kiihdyttämöt, vaikuttavat pienimpiin toimiviin tuotteisiin kouluttamalla ja mentoroimalla kokemattomia perustajia. Päätelmät: Yksinkertaista prototyyppiä voidaan käyttää pienimpänä toimivana tuotteena. Lisäksi, kokeneet perustajat haluavat kehittää ensimmäisen pienimmän toimivan tuotteen itse, kun taas kokemattomat perustajat tarvitsevat tukea ulkopuolisilta organisaatioilta pienimmän toimivan tuotteen kehittämisessä

How are product ideas validated?:the process from innovation to requirements engineering in software startups

Abstract Although software startups are considered important for economic development due to their ability to quickly create cutting-edge technologies and their potential to scale to a wide market, contextual knowledge about the product idea development process of startups is poorly understood in the literature. This study explores the idea validation process of software startups in an attempt to understand the practices used for idea validation, discover how the process is affected by the founder’s prior competencies, and determine the effect of those practices on requirement gathering. We conducted an exploratory multiple case study in nine software startups to determine the kind of practices they used for idea validation. We identified ten practices used as elements of the idea validation process. Our results show that idea validation is a highly non-linear process in which several validation practices are used in varying combinations and timing. The most frequently used practices included copying existing products, prototyping, utilizing expert support, and cooperating closely with customers. The founder’s prior competencies also influenced the selected practices. Copying and prototyping were common practices when the founders had prior competencies in the application area, while utilizing expert support was a widespread practice to compensate for the founder’s missing competencies. We also observed that the idea validation practices identified in the study serve requirement gathering at different levels of abstraction, varying from business-related requirements down to design-level requirements

Startup ecosystem effect on minimum viable product development in software startups

Abstract Context: Software startups develop innovative products through which they scale their business rapidly, and thus, provide value to the economy, including job generation. However, most startups fail within two years of their launch because of a poor problem-solution fit and negligence of the learning process during minimum viable product (MVP) development. An ideal startup ecosystem can assist in MVP development by providing the necessary entrepreneurial education and technical skills to founding team members for identifying problem-solution fit for their product idea, allowing them to find the right product-market fit. However, existing knowledge on the effect of the startup ecosystem elements on the MVP development is limited. Objective: The empirical study presented in this article aims to identify the effect of the six ecosystem elements (entrepreneurs, technology, market, support factors, finance, and human capital) on MVP development. Method: We conducted a study with 13 software startups and five supporting organizations (accelerators, incubator, co-working space, and investment firm) in the startup ecosystem of the city of Oulu in Finland. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observation, and materials. Results: The study results showed that internal sources are most common for identifying requirements for the product idea for MVP development. The findings indicate that supporting factors, such as incubators and accelerators, can influence MVP development by providing young founders with the necessary entrepreneurship skills and education needed to create the right product-market fit. Conclusions: We conclude from this study of a regional startup ecosystem that the MVP development process is most affected by founding team members’ experiences and skill sets and by advanced technologies. Furthermore, a constructive startup ecosystem around software startups can boost up the creation of an effective MVP to test product ideas and find a product-market fit

Digital twin ecosystems:potential stakeholders and their requirements

Abstract Context: As industries are heading for digital transformation through Industry 4.0, the concept of Digital Twin (DT) — a software for digital transformation, has become popular. Many industries use DT for its advantages, such as predictive maintenance and real-time remote monitoring. Within DT domain, an emerging topic is the concept of an ecosystem—a digital platform that would create value for different stakeholders in an ecosystem of DT-driven products and services. The identification of potential stakeholders and their requirements provides valuable contributions to the development of healthy Digital Twin Ecosystems (DTE). However, current empirical knowledge of potential stakeholders and their requirements are limited. Objective/Methodology: Thus, the objective of this research was to explore potential stakeholders and their requirements. The research employed an empirical research methodology in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with DT professionals for data collection. Results: Data analysis of the study revealed 13 potential stakeholders who were categorized as primary (manufacturers, suppliers, subcontractors, and intelligent robots), secondary (maintenance service providers, platform integration service providers, tech companies, etc.), and tertiary (research organizations, third-party value-added service providers, cyber security firms, etc.). This study also presents the different requirements of these stakeholders in detail. Contribution: The study contributes to both research and industry by identifying possible stakeholders and their requirements. It contributes to the literature by adding new knowledge on DTEs and fills a research gap while contributing industry by providing ample knowledge to the industry’s practitioners that is useful in the development and maintenance of a healthy DTE

Insights into startup ecosystems through exploration of multi-vocal literature

Abstract Context: Successful startup firms have the ability to create jobs and contribute to economic welfare. A suitable ecosystem developed around startups is important to form and support these firms. In this regard, it is crucial to understand the startup ecosystem, particularly from researchers’ and practitioners’ perspectives. However, a systematic literature research on the startup ecosystem is limited. Objective: In this study, our objective was to conduct a multi-vocal literature review and rigorously find existing studies on the startup ecosystem in order to organize and analyze them, know the definitions and major elements of this ecosystem, and determine the roles of such elements in startups’ product development. Method: We conducted a multi-vocal literature review to analyze relevant articles, which are published technical articles, white papers, and Internet articles that focused on the startup ecosystem. Our search generated 18,310 articles, of which 63 were considered primary candidates focusing on the startup ecosystem. Results: From our analysis of primary articles, we found four definitions of a startup ecosystem. These definitions used common terms, such as stakeholders, supporting organization, infrastructure, network, and region. Out of 63 articles, 34 belonged to the opinion type, with contributions in the form of reports, whereas over 50% had full relevance to the startup ecosystem. We identified eight major elements (finance, demography, market, education, human capital, technology, entrepreneur, and support factors) of a startup ecosystem, which directly or indirectly affected startups. Conclusions: This study aims to provide the state of the art on the startup ecosystem through a multi-vocal literature review. The results indicate that current knowledge on the startup ecosystem is mainly shared by non-peer-reviewed literature, thus signifying the need for more systematic and empirical literature on the topic. Our study also provides some recommendations for future work

The effect of competitor interaction on startup’s product development

Abstract [Context and motivation] Due to lack of resources and teams with low levels of experience, startups face several challenges during their product development, such as product customization, attracting new customers, and mastering the technology uncertainty. To increase their market presence and compensate for their lack of resources, startups need to consider other options such as joint ventures and partnerships. [Question/problem] Some companies that share highly similar resources and businesses can be potential competitors with one another. The effect of interaction with such potential competitors with respect to startups to obtain expertise has not been often reported in the literature to date. [Principal ideas/results] In this study, we simulated two software startups in a controlled experiment to evaluate the effect of interaction with a potential competitor in the effort estimation process. A real startup case was also involved in analyzing the effect. The results of the study show that there is a statistically significant difference in the effectiveness when co-operating with a competitor in the process. Experiment participants also considered the interaction with the potential competitor useful based on the exchange of important information and ideas regarding the product domain. [Contribution] This paper contributes by demonstrating the effect of interaction with a potential competitor in the effort estimation process. In addition, our study encourages further research on startups working in with the competitors in other software engineering knowledge areas

Exploration of technical debt in start-ups

Abstract Context: Software start-ups are young companies aiming to build and market software-intensive products fast with little resources. Aiming to accelerate time-to-market, start-ups often opt for ad-hoc engineering practices, make shortcuts in product engineering, and accumulate technical debt. Objective: In this paper we explore to what extent precedents, dimensions and outcomes associated with technical debt are prevalent in start-ups. Method: We apply a case survey method to identify aspects of technical debt and contextual information characterizing the engineering context in start-ups. Results: By analyzing responses from 86 start-up cases we found that start-ups accumulate most technical debt in the testing dimension, despite attempts to automate testing. Furthermore, we found that start-up team size and experience is a leading precedent for accumulating technical debt: larger teams face more challenges in keeping the debt under control. Conclusions: This study highlights the necessity to monitor levels of technical debt and to preemptively introduce practices to keep the debt under control. Adding more people to an already difficult to maintain product could amplify other precedents, such as resource shortages, communication issues and negatively affect decisions pertaining to the use of good engineering practices

A progression model of software engineering goals, challenges, and practices in start-ups

Abstract Context: Software start-ups are emerging as suppliers of innovation and software-intensive products. However, traditional software engineering practices are not evaluated in the context, nor adopted to goals and challenges of start-ups. As a result, there is insufficient support for software engineering in the start-up context. Objective: We aim to collect data related to engineering goals, challenges, and practices in start-up companies to ascertain trends and patterns characterizing engineering work in start-ups. Such data allows researchers to understand better how goals and challenges are related to practices. This understanding can then inform future studies aimed at designing solutions addressing those goals and challenges. Besides, these trends and patterns can be useful for practitioners to make more informed decisions in their engineering practice. Method: We use a case survey method to gather first-hand, in-depth experiences from a large sample of software start-ups. We use open coding and cross-case analysis to describe and identify patterns, and corroborate the findings with statistical analysis. Results: We analyze 84 start-up cases and identify 16 goals, 9 challenges, and 16 engineering practices that are common among start- ups. We have mapped these goals, challenges, and practices to start-up life-cycle stages (inception, stabilization, growth, and maturity). Thus, creating the progression model guiding software engineering efforts in start-ups. Conclusions: We conclude that start-ups to a large extent face the same challenges and use the same practices as established companies. However, the primary software engineering challenge in start-ups is to evolve multiple process areas at once, with a little margin for serious errors

Use of agile practices in start-up companies

Abstract Context: Software start-ups have shown their ability to develop and launch innovative software products and services. Small, motivated teams and uncertain project scope makes start-ups good candidates for adopting Agile practices. Objective: We explore how start-ups use Agile practices and what effects can be associated with the use of those practices. Method: We use a case survey to analyze 84 start-up cases and 56 Agile practices. We apply statistical methods to test for statistically significant associations between the use of Agile practices, team, and product factors. Results: Our results suggest that development of the backlog, use of version control, code refactoring, and development of user stories are the most frequently reported practices. We identify 22 associations between the use of Agile practices, team, and product factors. The use of Agile practices is associated with effects on source code and overall product quality. A teams’ positive or negative attitude towards best engineering practices is a significant indicator for either adoption or rejection of certain Agile practices. To explore the relationships in our findings, we set forth a number of propositions that can be investigated in future research. Conclusions: We conclude that start-ups use Agile practices, however without following any specific methodology. We identify the opportunity for more fine-grained studies into the adoption and effects of individual Agile practices. Start-up practitioners could benefit from Agile practices in terms of better overall quality, tighter control over team performance, and resource utilization

An anatomy of requirements engineering in software startups using multi-vocal literature and case survey

Abstract Context: Software startups aim to develop innovative products, grow rapidly, and thus become important in the development of economy and jobs. Requirements engineering (RE) is a key process area in software development, but its effects on software startups are unclear. Objective: The main objective of this study was to explore how RE (elicitation, documentation, prioritization and validation) is used in software startups. Method: A multi-vocal literature review (MLR) was used to find scientific and gray literature. In addition, a case survey was employed to gather empirical data to reach this study’s objective. Results: In the MLR, 36 primary articles were selected out of 28,643 articles. In the case survey, 80 respondents provided information about software startup cases across the globe. Data analysis revealed that during RE processes, internal sources (e.g., for source), analyses of similar products (e.g., elicitation), uses of informal notes (e.g., for documentation), values to customers, products and stakeholders (e.g., for prioritization) and internal reviews/prototypes (e.g., for validation) were the most used techniques. Conclusion: After an analysis of primary literature, it was concluded that research on this topic is still in early stages and more systematic research is needed. Furthermore, few topics were suggested for future research