Nicolo Paternoster

Bio: Nicolo Paternoster is an academic researcher from Blekinge Institute of Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Social software engineering & Personal software process. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 7 publications receiving 663 citations.

Software development in startup companies: A systematic mapping study

Abstract: Context: Software startups are newly created companies with no operating history and fast in producing cutting-edge technologies. These companies develop software under highly uncertain conditions, tackling fast-growing markets under severe lack of resources. Therefore, software startups present a unique combination of characteristics which pose several challenges to software development activities. Objective: This study aims to structure and analyze the literature on software development in startup companies, determining thereby the potential for technology transfer and identifying software development work practices reported by practitioners and researchers. Method: We conducted a systematic mapping study, developing a classification schema, ranking the selected primary studies according their rigor and relevance, and analyzing reported software development work practices in startups. Results: A total of 43 primary studies were identified and mapped, synthesizing the available evidence on software development in startups. Only 16 studies are entirely dedicated to software development in startups, of which 10 result in a weak contribution (advice and implications (6); lesson learned (3); tool (1)). Nineteen studies focus on managerial and organizational factors. Moreover, only 9 studies exhibit high scientific rigor and relevance. From the reviewed primary studies, 213 software engineering work practices were extracted, categorized and analyzed. Conclusion: This mapping study provides the first systematic exploration of the state-of-art on software startup research. The existing body of knowledge is limited to a few high quality studies. Furthermore, the results indicate that software engineering work practices are chosen opportunistically, adapted and configured to provide value under the constrains imposed by the startup context.

Software Development in Startup Companies: The Greenfield Startup Model

Abstract: Software startups are newly created companies with no operating history and oriented towards producing cutting-edge products. However, despite the increasing importance of startups in the economy, few scientific studies attempt to address software engineering issues, especially for early-stage startups. If anything, startups need engineering practices of the same level or better than those of larger companies, as their time and resources are more scarce, and one failed project can put them out of business. In this study we aim to improve understanding of the software development strategies employed by startups. We performed this state-of-practice investigation using a grounded theory approach. We packaged the results in the Greenfield Startup Model (GSM), which explains the priority of startups to release the product as quickly as possible. This strategy allows startups to verify product and market fit, and to adjust the product trajectory according to early collected user feedback. The need to shorten time-to-market, by speeding up the development through low-precision engineering activities, is counterbalanced by the need to restructure the product before targeting further growth. The resulting implications of the GSM outline challenges and gaps, pointing out opportunities for future research to develop and validate engineering practices in the startup context.

What Do We Know about Software Development in Startups

Abstract: An impressive number of new startups are launched every day as a result of growing new markets, accessible technologies, and venture capital. New ventures such as Facebook, Supercell, Linkedin, Spotify, WhatsApp, and Dropbox, to name a few, are good examples of startups that evolved into successful businesses. However, despite many successful stories, the great majority of them fail prematurely. Operating in a chaotic and rapidly evolving domain conveys new uncharted challenges for startuppers. In this study, the authors characterize their context and identify common software development startup practices.

Voice of Evidence - What Do We Know about Software Development in Startups?

Abstract: An impressive number of new startups are launched every day as a result of growing new markets, accessible technologies, and venture capital. New ventures such as Facebook, Supercell, Linkedin, Spotify, WhatsApp, and Dropbox, to name a few, are good examples of startups that evolved into successful businesses. However, despite many successful stories, the great majority of them fail prematurely. Operating in a chaotic and rapidly evolving domain conveys new uncharted challenges for startuppers. In this study, the authors characterize their context and identify common software development startup practices.

Otoacoustic emissions in time-domain solutions of nonlinear non-local cochlear models

Abstract: A nonlinear and non-local cochlear model has been efficiently solved in the time domain numerically, obtaining the evolution of the transverse displacement of the basilar membrane at each cochlear place This information allows one to follow the forward and backward propagation of the traveling wave along the basilar membrane, and to evaluate the otoacoustic response from the time evolution of the stapes displacement The phase/frequency relation of the response can be predicted, as well as the physical delay associated with the response onset time, to evaluate the relation between different cochlear characteristic times as a function of the stimulus level and of the physical parameters of the model For a nonlinear cochlea, simplistic frequency-domain interpretations of the otoacoustic response phase behavior may give inconsistent results Time-domain numerical solutions of the underlying nonlinear and non-local full cochlear model using a large number (thousands) of partitions in space and an adaptive mesh in time are rather time and memory consuming Therefore, in order to be able to use standard personal computers for simulations reliably, the discretized model has been carefully designed to enforce sparsity of the matrices using a multi-iterative approach Preliminary results concerning the cochlear characteristic delays are also presented

The Lean Startup:How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Abstract: Eric Ries was born in September 1978. He graduated from Yale University and moved to silicon Valley in the beginning of the millennium. He pioneered the philosophy of Lean Startup, based on his experience with multiple startups, primary being IMVU which he co-founded along with Will Harvey in 2004. Eric Ries originated his Lean Startup philosophy after getting inspired from the Japanese Philosophy of Lean Manufacturing.

Guidelines for including grey literature and conducting multivocal literature reviews in software engineering

Abstract: Context A Multivocal Literature Review (MLR) is a form of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) which includes the grey literature (e.g., blog posts, videos and white papers) in addition to the published (formal) literature (e.g., journal and conference papers). MLRs are useful for both researchers and practitioners since they provide summaries both the state-of-the art and –practice in a given area. MLRs are popular in other fields and have recently started to appear in software engineering (SE). As more MLR studies are conducted and reported, it is important to have a set of guidelines to ensure high quality of MLR processes and their results. Objective There are several guidelines to conduct SLR studies in SE. However, several phases of MLRs differ from those of traditional SLRs, for instance with respect to the search process and source quality assessment. Therefore, SLR guidelines are only partially useful for conducting MLR studies. Our goal in this paper is to present guidelines on how to conduct MLR studies in SE. Method To develop the MLR guidelines, we benefit from several inputs: (1) existing SLR guidelines in SE, (2), a literature survey of MLR guidelines and experience papers in other fields, and (3) our own experiences in conducting several MLRs in SE. We took the popular SLR guidelines of Kitchenham and Charters as the baseline and extended/adopted them to conduct MLR studies in SE. All derived guidelines are discussed in the context of an already-published MLR in SE as the running example. Results The resulting guidelines cover all phases of conducting and reporting MLRs in SE from the planning phase, over conducting the review to the final reporting of the review. In particular, we believe that incorporating and adopting a vast set of experience-based recommendations from MLR guidelines and experience papers in other fields have enabled us to propose a set of guidelines with solid foundations. Conclusion Having been developed on the basis of several types of experience and evidence, the provided MLR guidelines will support researchers to effectively and efficiently conduct new MLRs in any area of SE. The authors recommend the researchers to utilize these guidelines in their MLR studies and then share their lessons learned and experiences.