Software Development Methodologies and 
             Practices in Startups - Systematic Literature 
                                Review 
              
              
              
              
              
              
              
              
              
                                  University of Oulu 
                                  Faculty of Information Technology and 
                                  Electrical Engineering/ M3S 
                                  Master’s Thesis  
                                  Esubalew Workineh Tegegne 
                                  Date:     27.2.2018
              
                                             2 
          Abstract 
          Startups are newly created companies with little or no operating history and with limited 
          resources and markets. Software startup are aiming to develop cutting edge software 
          products  under  highly  uncertain  conditions,  overcoming  fast-growing  markets  under 
          multiple influences. The significance of startups for economic development is growing 
          in software business due to their ability to quickly create innovative technologies and 
          their potential to scale to a wide market. The objective of this thesis is to identify and 
          analyze existing scientific literature regarding software development methodologies and 
          practices used in startup companies published between Jan 2006 and Dec 2016.  
           
          A  systematic  literature  review  was  conducted  to  explore  the  previous  research  on 
          software  development  methods  and  practices  in  startups.  A  review  protocol  was 
          developed and used as a procedure to conduct the review. The data was collected from 
          three databases i.e. IEEE Xplore, Scopus, ISI Web of Science. This research identified 
          30  relevant  primary  studies  out  of  a  total  1249  papers  to  answer  defined  research 
          questions. The result show that agile and Lean Startup methodologies are the most used 
          methodologies across startup companies. Due to the flexible nature of startups, tailoring 
          specific methodology is a common practice among startup companies. Additionally, a 
          total of 95 software development work practices are extracted from primary studies.  
           
          This thesis concludes that software development methodologies in startups are informal, 
          customized, and highly dependent on the experience of project managers. It is also 
          noted  that  principles  related  to  these  development  methodologies  are  not  strictly 
          followed due to limited resources and uncertainty in the market. Furthermore, the results 
          shows that software startups choose development methodologies and practices which 
          are flexible, light-weight and allow rapid changes.   
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
          Keywords 
           
          Startups, software startups, software development, systematic literature review 
           
          Supervisor 
           
          Dr. Muhammad Ovais Ahmad 
           
                                                            3 
             Foreword 
             I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Muhammad Ovais 
             Ahmad  who  gave  me  professional  guidance  and  valuable  feedback  throughout  the 
             process of conducting systematic literature review and thesis writing. He has always 
             been providing me valuable suggestions and motivation whenever I was trapped with 
             some issues.  
              
             At last but not least I want to thank my families and friends who always been with me 
             encouraging me to complete this thesis. The thesis process has been challenging but 
             with your encouragements and supports of various kinds, I am able to complete it.  
              
             Esubalew Workineh Tegegne 
             Oulu, February 27, 2018 
                              
              
                                                                                                4 
                     Abbreviation 
                      
                      
                     SLR          Systematic Literature Review 
                     SMS          Systematic Mapping Study 
                     RQ           Research Question 
                     SE           Software Engineering 
                     SWEBOK       Software Engineering Body of Knowledge 
                     XP           Extreme Programming 
                     MDD          Model-Driven Development 
                     RUP          Rational Unified Process 
                     ESSSDM       Early Stage Software Startup Development Model 
                     MVP          Minimum Viable Product