Abstract

The notion of time-to-completion has become established in traditional product segments. An exploratory study of factors that may be linked to time-to-completion was conducted in twelve software package startups. The firms developed their first package in just over two years, on average and their subsequent packages in just over one year. The management and awareness of time- to-completion was fuzzy and contradictory: deadlines were "soft," articulation of development speed strategy was poor, and recall of process times was uneven. Yet the developers expended a great deal of effort during "crunch" periods, suggesting that time-to-completion may indeed be of importance. Although causality is difficult to verify, the most influential factor was the existence of a loosely organized inner software development team with cross-functional talents and responsibilities—the core development team. The attributes, norms, and patterns of communication of these core teams drove time-to-completion. The core team size ranged from three to six members and seems to increase only slightly as the firm grows. Because of its small size and high intra-group communication, the product design and its development process is internalized rather than formalized. The individuals in the core teams, who are the product architects and principal programmers, possess two experience sets: technical and application specific. Other factors that are generally proposed as time0to0completion drivers; use of a software development methodology was found to be low, and use of software tools was also found to be low. Other factors discuss: project and risk management, incremental innovation, and quality assurance.


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ham_1091.pdf