Software startups are increasingly under high pressure to deliver successful products to survive and thrive in the modern highly competitive technology market. Larger organizations with deep pockets can replicate the same business ideas used by startups with relative ease. So how does the average startup stand a chance at succeeding at this seemingly David vs. Goliath contest? This article looks at the available literature and identifies such factors that can affect the success of software development startups. Using causal loop constructs from the field of system dynamics, the interactions among the various identified factors are visualised to reveal the dynamics of the system. The result is as a three-dimensional view of success factors in form of time, capital and (product) differentiation. The modelled system is then simulated, and the resultant trend is reviewed and interpreted. This research acts as ground work for analysing the workings of software development startups and sets the stage for a more holistic study of the area, upon which further research can be carried out.
Business cases and customer problem spaces are evolving quicker than ever before and more startups are moving to adopt the lean startup methodology to match this speed of changing customer needs. This phenomenon, however, comes with its own set of opportunities and challenges for startups to build great products, while catering to customer pain points. To this end, there is a need for a metrics framework which can help startups succeed in creating good software solutions and building successful business models around these solutions. Metrics can help measure the effectiveness of the product in relation to the customer problem and help drive key decisions in both the product and business aspects of the startup. This paper reviews current frameworks on metrics for software products, studies the appropriateness in the context of software startups and proposes a metrics framework to help provide good software experiences, while subsequently building good business models around these experiences. The framework is designed to cover aspects of both the product and business space, ranging from considerations of the problem space identification to the evolution of the solution. The proposed framework is validated using a case study approach of a successful startup. The framework aims to help startups in their journey to success by providing an end to end, structured approach to metric identification.
Although software startups are seen as engines of rapid growth and sources of disruptive innovation, these entities are known to have a high failure rate. In addition to this, owing to the rapidly evolving technology sector and the ever-changing needs of the modern business and consumer markets, it might be worth reviewing the development methodologies presently in use for relevance. Considering newer technological constructs such as cloud computing and corresponding impact that could have on the development process such as the ability to quickly scale will need to be studied as part of such a review. This research works reviews current literature for product, business model, and integrated frameworks involving the two spaces to present the various aspects covered as part of the different paradigms of startup development within the software space. The resultant review presents the areas covered by the different paradigms and presents a view of the various areas from the viewpoint of software startup success factors.
Despite a rise in interest in software start-ups, most entrepreneurs struggle to find their footing and eventually fail. Novice entrepreneurs could benefit from a tailored process-driven experience for business model (BM) development, which would take the end user from conception to realisation. This research uncovers if a process-based experience could help entrepreneurs develop BMs and aid in documenting and presenting the outcome. This work discusses the efficacy of the Blitz Canvas model for BM generation using an application called iVenture, which is designed as a digital realisation of the said model. The model is shown to students at a university who have expressed interest in building their own start-ups. Qualitative data was collected in the form of feedback around their BM development experience, when using iVenture. Analysis of data showed potential for process-based models in BM development and a future for BM dashboards as online tools for planning and presentation.
Software startups are increasingly under high pressure to deliver successful products to survive and thrive in the modern highly competitive technology market. Larger organizations with deep pockets can replicate the same business ideas used by startups with relative ease. So how does the average startup stand a chance at succeeding at this seemingly David vs. Goliath contest? This article looks at the available literature and identifies such factors that can affect the success of software development startups. Using causal loop constructs from the field of system dynamics, the interactions among the various identified factors are visualised to reveal the dynamics of the system. The result is as a three-dimensional view of success factors in form of time, capital and (product) differentiation. The modelled system is then simulated, and the resultant trend is reviewed and interpreted. This research acts as ground work for analysing the workings of software development startups and sets the stage for a more holistic study of the area, upon which further research can be carried out.
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