A recommended market research based approach for small software companies for improving systematic reuse capability in delivering customized software solutions

Small software companies can neither be typical software product company like Microsoft, nor afford to develop each customized application for individual customer from clean slate without taking into consideration of reuse. Systematic reuse is an opportunity of continued cost reduction and quality improvement in software delivery. Small software companies in Bangladesh and the rest of the world need to exploit this opportunity to deal with ever increasing competitive market forces. Systematic reuse largely depends on the scope of delivering customized software applications in the same market segment repeatedly to multiple customers. Understanding the market for defining the generic software application concept which will be customized for meeting individual customer's demand and expectation in a profitable manner is difficult. Thorough market analysis provides basic inputs for defining generic product concept for launching customized software application for delivering services targeting suitable market segments. Choosing an appropriate market research methodology is challenging within the context where the market forces for software application are rapidly changing. And a successful new service launch around customized application delivery by targeting an attractive market segment is thought by many to be the key to business growth and profitability. The problem of establishing a successful new business around a generic software product concept is not challenging because of shortage of ideas, but rather problems exist in proper analysis of the market, studying different market segments, targeting the attractive segment, minimizing development expenses, pricing product appropriately, adopting reuse capability for continued price reduction and quality improvement to deal with evolving market forces and marketing the new product. This paper, therefore, suggests the application of market research methodology to screen new software application ideas based on market analysis and shows how a software company can combine market research with new software product development to provide exciting customized software applications that better meet consumer requirements and make the company profitable. Both state-of-art-review and filed investigation have been performed to assess global as well as local practices of market research methodology in different industries including the software industry. Upon analysis of review outputs and field level investigation findings, a set of recommendations for practicing market research methodology for small software companies have been derived for improving systematic reuse based sustained capability improvement in delivering customized software applications in attractive market segments in an increasing profitable manner.