Exploring the Applicability of Software Startup Patterns in the Ugandan Context

Abstract

Context: Software startups need to tackle a lot of challenges as they grow. Therefore, reoccurring strategies are applied that can be captured in form of patterns. Objectives: While more and more of these patterns are published, we aimed to discover to what degree they are applied within different regions of the world. Method: We studied the cases of 7 software startups within 2 incubation hubs in Uganda, by performing qualitative interviews. We focused on 5 patterns from diverse areas of concerns to analyze whether the Ugandan startups' strategies match these patterns. Results: For most of the patterns we found matches. However, in some cases the startups strategies are only partially described by the known pattern. Conclusion: The findings indicate that startup patterns can often be transferred from countries such as Switzerland and Finland to Uganda. we also found some variations from the known patterns in the contexts and solutions applied in Ugandan startups.