Software Knowledge Registration Practices at Software Innovation Startups

The development of innovative software usually happens in an environment of high uncertainty conditions regarding the problem, the solution, and business issues. Thus, the software needs to be delivered fast and iteratively to the intended customers, which can quickly experiment the ideas developed for the product and give adequate feedback regarding the new features. This development configuration can lead software innovation Startups to avoid activities regarding the creation and updating of documentation and models about the software ideas and features, which raise the risk of losing software knowledge that can support successive software development iterations. Aiming at contributing to supporting software knowledge registering, we conducted an exploratory study to characterize knowledge registration practices used in innovative software projects to make clear software ideas and features. Moreover, we want to observe what influence practitioners when making decisions on using one or another registration practice. The data collected from six experts from six different software innovation Startups through semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire supported the identification of registration practices and factors influencing the decision making on using such practices. The results provide an indication in the context of software innovation Startups that can contribute to future research and proposals to support the engineering of innovative software.