Technical Aspects of Software Development in Startups: A Systematic Mapping

Startup companies are seeking for a business model by means of innovative products and need external investments until they can stabilize this product in the market and then start to grow to become a mature company. Nevertheless, many of these companies fail before the growth phase, emerging the need to seek for methods that help these companies to achieve their goals. This paper intends to identify the techniques, practices and tools used in software development on startups and from the results present a knowledge base that can be transferable to the industry. A systematic mapping study was conducted using a classification schema to attest the primary studies quality as well as a exclusion and inclusion criteria to select them. A total of 112 studies are found at the end of the searches and 19 of them were selected to form the mapping study. From these studies a total of 24 techniques, 31 practices and 37 tools were found. As a result the mapping study presents a technical knowledge base that seeks to fill the research gap and that can also be used as a starting point for both researchers and startups' practitioners.