From Knowing Nothing to Knowing a Little: Experiences Gained from Process Improvement in a Start-Up Company

Abstract

Some software organizations still practice ad hoc development, evolution and maintenance of their systems. Many of them are typical start-up companies. They wish to become immediately profitable without paying heed to rudimentary success factors such as for instance software processes. As a result, they have little insight into and control over their activities. This paper reports on our experiences gained from our process improvement effort at mobile navigation, a Swedish start-up company. This effort has aided mobile navigation to progress from the stage of knowing almost nothing to knowing at least a little about their processes.