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AbstractIn this position paper, our goal is to argue the need for specific software development practices to early-stage startups. In order to reach this goal, we discuss the consequences of innovative and market-driven contexts, which are two of the key elements when describing software startups. We also argue that these practices could be applied to innovative initiatives within established companies since they share similar characteristics and challenges as those from startups.

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AbstractSeveral companies whose businesses are not centered on technology might fail to innovate and get advantages over their competitors. For them, meaningful innovations are not necessarily related to the usage of new technologies but the optimization of some business process. In the literature, experimentation is described as an essential aspect of the innovation process. Although software engineering studies have explored experimentation, none has focused on software-intensive innovative projects in non-software-intensive companies, which consists of a contrast between the fast-changing environment in software-intensive to rigid structures in consolidated businesses. This paper proposes an experiment-oriented process to identify and implement innovation in this kind of company, including the roles involved in such processes. It has steps to identify business bottlenecks, search for solution alternatives, implement a fast and functional software proof of concept, create a plan for evolution, and migrate to a regular project to continue that idea. This paper also presents an evaluation of this process in a company focused on outsourced services, such as cleaning and maintenance. As a result, several internal procedures in a year were improved and received software support.