How do Agile Software Startups deal with uncertainties by Covid-19 pandemic?

Abstract

The dissipation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has already taken on pandemic proportions, affecting over 100 countries in a couple of weeks. The evolution of the disease and its economic impact is highly uncertain, which brings challenges for newly created software companies. Software startups are companies that create innovative software products and services in a dynamic and fast-growing market. Agile Software Methods aims to enable startups in responding to uncertainty caused by Covid-19. This paper investigates the impact of Covid-19 in a real software startup context to understand how they have reacted against uncertainties caused by Covid-19. As a research methodology, action research within Di2Win, a Brazilian software startup, has been applied. The study was carried out throughout six sprints, during the quarantine. Practices employed to mitigate threats while simultaneously allowing teams to remain open to opportunities and challenges are detailed. This paper shares lessons learned that could help agile software startups improve their way of work in an uncertain environment caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Impact of Covid 19 on Agile Software Development: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Overview of the used research designs literature review. Seven primary studies were published in conference proceedings ( [38,39,40,42,43,44], the remaining six were published in journals [36,37,41,45,46,47].…”

Happier and further by going together: The importance of software team behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…This includes offering social connections, such as pizza on Fridays, music knowledge questionnaires, and shared meals in which groups of people from different countries and offices meet through videoconferencing for a casual chat. Alternatively, other social practices, such as playing game rounds during work hours, have emerged as methods to keep developers happy at work [ 42 ].…”

“…Johnson et al [ 40 ] researched robust tools that could be used to facilitate remote communication (e.g., video conferencing meetings, chat applications, file sharing). As presented in Camara et al [ 42 ], software start-ups can modify their agile methodologies from being co-located to remote due to the pandemic. This was corroborated by NicCanna et al [ 14 ], who reported that modifying the practices adopted in the organisation with projects globally distributed to allow working from home.…”

Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic for Software Development in Nordic Companies – Agility Helps to Respond

“…The majority of our respondents were in large or very large companies. In contrast, in a recent study, one software startup company faced many uncertainties and demands for adaptation when it was forced to quickly change the previous co-located agile ways of working to remote working at home [4]. The key challenges were maintaining the teams' productivity and ability to continue delivering satisfying customer value.…”

“…Overall, the pandemic has affected different industries and companies in different countries in various ways, even within the core ICT industry, and different companies have devised various ways to respond and adapt to the impacts (e.g., [4,5]). The pandemic year 2020 affected significantly and suddenly the work-life in Finland and Sweden too, due to extensive telecommuting recommendations.…”