Abstract
Context: Software products or services are vital elements of software startups. To build up those software products, a team is responsible. While developing, they often forget or postpone team reflection. A team reflection helps to realize whether the software startup is directing towards its vision, the current and upcoming problems, facts, and figures that get neglected due to daily operations. Finally, some crucial information that could save the software startup from turning into a failure story.
Objective: This study evaluates how different software startup teams perform team reflection on entrepreneurial experience. Currently, what software development teams follow to practice team reflection and related triggers. Also, encouraging and discouraging factors that are involved with software startup team reflection.
Method: The author conducted multiple qualitative case studies. Seven software startups were collected, all founded and based in Italy. The author conducted face-to-face, nineteen semi-structured interviews. Open-ended questions presented in the interview lasted around thirty to sixty-five minutes. As the interviewees, the author mainly involved founders and shareholders because they are on their startups whole journeys. Most of the interview participants have been interviewed twice within seven months of the time frame. The author followed multiple case analyses for transcript analysis, where the author conducted within-case and cross-case comparisons. The unit of analysis was a team. Nvivo 12 aided the entire transcripts and data analysis process.
Results: The multiple case study reveals two team reflection approaches: Routine team reflection and Critical team reflection. All of the seven software cases prefer a routine team reflection approach. At the same time, three from seven software startup cases performed a critical team reflection approach too. The study also outlines six entrepreneurial experience triggers for routine team reflection and five entrepreneurial experience triggers for critical team reflection. Moreover, this study mentions ten encouraging for routine and three encouraging for critical team reflection factors. Furthermore, eleven discouraging factors for routine and eight discouraging factors are outline in this Ph.D. study.
Conclusion: A continuous momentum of a routine team reflection when creating and dealing with software products or services and financial management could save a startup from critical team reflection sessions. Otherwise, critical team reflection could lead to harsh decisions of terminating the entire team and idea. Even end the software startup.