Software Engineering in Startups: A Single Embedded Case Study

Abstract

Context - Software engineering practices are chal-lenging activities in the startups' context due their limited resources and need to create high-tech and innovative products. The challenge becomes even bigger when taking into consideration the startups' search for highly scalable business models. Problem - Since they cannot rely on such a heavyweight software processes they need to resort to alternative practices. Goal - Thus, the main goal of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the software startups' practices. Method - In this sense, we conducted a single embedded case study in four local software startups incubated/first born in an academic environment. The case study consisted of semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, non-participative observations, and archiving data covering the software engineering practices. Results - The results allowed us to build an Academic Startup Model to capture the software startups' practices and the relationship among them. Conclusions - Moreover, we encourage further investigation of some aspects, such as: investigate industrial context, add more units of analysis, and select units of analysis from different business domains.