software startups – forget the processes?...lean startup special session • processes for...

SOFTWARE STARTUPS –FORGET THE PROCESSES?

Pekka AbrahamssonDean, professor

Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, ItalyKeynote address

11.12.2013 Software Statup Day, Tampere, Finland

LEAN STARTUPSPECIAL SESSION

• Processes for today’s startups are nowhere to be found nor can can they be developed for several reasons

• Patterns can be identified but they become obselete in less than 5yrs

• Predominantly, software startups face the existency problem, i.e., whether they even have the right to exist at all?

• Systemic design requires holistic understanding of the market place, the product and the problem domain but rarely plays a role in startups

Software startups and processes

NEARLY ALL STARTUPS FAIL!

Cheap to implement

Costly to implement

Highbusiness

value

Lowbusiness

value

Great!

Crazy!

Dangerous!

Risky!

WHY THESE FAILURES?• Let’s take a look at three recent action research studies

– Libroalpini– Picteye– Bobo

• These are typical startup scenarios: Libroalpini is out of business, Picteye is going out of business (most likely) and Bobo is an ongoing (failure) startup

• The cases are particularly interesting since– The team is mostly the same (learning should

happen)– They follow (or followed) lean startup method for

business development and Scrumban for product development

You CANNOTbuy photosfrom any

event

Event photo platform,

photographers earn 70%

QUANTITATIVE MEASURES!

KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS!

OVERVIEW

Screen capturefrom ”libroalpini.it”

OVERVIEW

OVERVIEW

...

http://www.libroalpini.it/overview

...

ORIGINAL MISSION – THE REQS

ORIGINAL MISSION – THE REQS

ORIGINAL MISSION – THE REQS

Sounds good, but how many sold photos you have up to date?

Let’s talk about the important stuff

What do your students see?

Maybe even this:

Imagine…• Having a cluster with hundreds of nodes• At a price that is affordable• With low energy and maintenance costs• Full access for your students

Not possible? Think again!

Honey, I shrunk the data center!

The Plan for MVP

A collective effort! More than 20 students and staff have been involved so far.

RACK V1.0 – MARCH 2013

RACK V2.0 – JUNE 2013

MISSION COMPLETED?

DOES IT SELL?

THE PUZZLE

THE PUZZLE

CHARACTERISTICS OF THEFUTURE OF COMPUTING

• Friendly• Functional• Solid• Economical• Natural• Modular• Accessible• Removable• Self-buildable• Modifyible• Maintainable• Transportable

• Zero-mile production

• Artistic• Personalizable• Multi-use• Timeless• Recyclable• Simple• Sympathetic• Easy• Sustainable• Fun

We went back to thedrawing board!

Bobo’s software

• Like Amazon, offers an infrastructure as a Service, but– Flexibility, Robustness, (enough)

performance– 100% controlled by you as it is completely

contained inside the cluster– Each Raspberry with a minimal DEBIAN

image, which offers RAM availability and CPU performance

– Focus on middleware to enable the Bobo’s use

• Global Bobo Cloud for students’ experimental projects, data, innovations and scripts

Bobo’s software• Loads of self-developed software, all open-

sourced:– Auto-generating SD-card operating system– Low-level infrastructure manager (+ installer)– Centralized auto-configuration manager (+

installer)– Monitor & Control Panel of the whole cluster– Personalized OwnCloud integration (+ installer)– Shell-in-a-box integration with OwnCloud– 3G connection between cluster nodes ( in

release)• Choices of technologies .. bash scripting,

python, NFS, Django, PostgreSQL ..

So, is Bobo energy cheap?

E[kWh] = P[kW] × t[h]

P[W] = V[V] × I[A]

Slim Bobo with 40 Raspberries0.8A @ 230V ≈ 180W

0.18kW @ 30kWh ≈ 167h

Single Sauna Stove ≈ 6kW@ 5h: 30kWh

It is morethan just heat!

Bobo’s use cases

• While one Bobo costs less than a MacBook Pro, there are several lucrative opportunities for the use of Bobo in business and in education

LEAN STARTUPSPECIAL SESSION

• Processes for today’s startups are nowhere to be found nor can can they be developed for several reasons

• Patterns can be identified but they become obselete in less than 5yrs

• Predominantly, software startups face the existency problem, i.e., whether they even have the right to exist at all?

• Systemic design requires holistic understanding of the market place, the product and the problem domain but rarely plays a role in startups

Software startups and processes

Tenured full professor in Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

(Jan 2010 onwards)

Currently, on leave from University of Helsinki,Adjunct Chief Scientist, SINTEF, NO (2007-2009),

Research Professor, VTT, FIN, 2002-2009

PhD in Software Engineering, Univ. of Oulu, 2002

Software developer & quality manager, 1995-2000

Has lead several large & international projects on agile &

global software development

Currently, the academic coordinator of Cloud Software

Research Programme, 60+MEUR, 30 partners, 2010-2013

ITEA-Achiement Award (silver) winner in 2007, Nokia

Foundation Award 2007

Organized more than 15 international SW conferences

100+ scientific publications

ABRAHAMSSON’S PROFILE

Tenured full professor in Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

(Jan 2010 onwards)

Currently, on leave from University of Helsinki,Adjunct Chief Scientist, SINTEF, NO (2007-2009),

Research Professor, VTT, FIN, 2002-2009

PhD in Software Engineering, Univ. of Oulu, 2002

Software developer & quality manager, 1995-2000

Has lead several large & international projects on agile &

global software development

Currently, the academic coordinator of Cloud Software

Research Programme, 60+MEUR, 30 partners, 2010-2013

ITEA-Achiement Award (silver) winner in 2007, Nokia

Foundation Award 2007

Organized more than 15 international SW conferences

100+ scientific publications

ABRAHAMSSON’S PROFILECYNEFIN FRAMEWORK

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Kautz & Snowden (

Tenured full professor in Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

(Jan 2010 onwards)

Currently, on leave from University of Helsinki,Adjunct Chief Scientist, SINTEF, NO (2007-2009),

Research Professor, VTT, FIN, 2002-2009

PhD in Software Engineering, Univ. of Oulu, 2002

Software developer & quality manager, 1995-2000

Has lead several large & international projects on agile &

global software development

Currently, the academic coordinator of Cloud Software

Research Programme, 60+MEUR, 30 partners, 2010-2013

ITEA-Achiement Award (silver) winner in 2007, Nokia

Foundation Award 2007

Organized more than 15 international SW conferences

100+ scientific publications

ABRAHAMSSON’S PROFILE

Complicated

SimpleChaoti

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Complex

Tenured full professor in Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

(Jan 2010 onwards)

Currently, on leave from University of Helsinki,Adjunct Chief Scientist, SINTEF, NO (2007-2009),

Research Professor, VTT, FIN, 2002-2009

PhD in Software Engineering, Univ. of Oulu, 2002

Software developer & quality manager, 1995-2000

Has lead several large & international projects on agile &

global software development

Currently, the academic coordinator of Cloud Software

Research Programme, 60+MEUR, 30 partners, 2010-2013

ITEA-Achiement Award (silver) winner in 2007, Nokia

Foundation Award 2007

Organized more than 15 international SW conferences

100+ scientific publications

ABRAHAMSSON’S PROFILE

C-------E

C=EC≠E

ORDERUN-ORDERED

Kautz & Snowden (

Tenured full professor in Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

(Jan 2010 onwards)

Currently, on leave from University of Helsinki,Adjunct Chief Scientist, SINTEF, NO (2007-2009),

Research Professor, VTT, FIN, 2002-2009

PhD in Software Engineering, Univ. of Oulu, 2002

Software developer & quality manager, 1995-2000

Has lead several large & international projects on agile &

global software development

Currently, the academic coordinator of Cloud Software

Research Programme, 60+MEUR, 30 partners, 2010-2013

ITEA-Achiement Award (silver) winner in 2007, Nokia

Foundation Award 2007

Organized more than 15 international SW conferences

100+ scientific publications

ABRAHAMSSON’S PROFILECYNEFIN FRAMEWORK

Kautz & Snowden (

~10000 hoursto master

~1000 hto maste

~10 houto maste

~? hoursto master

Tenured full professor in Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

(Jan 2010 onwards)

Currently, on leave from University of Helsinki,Adjunct Chief Scientist, SINTEF, NO (2007-2009),

Research Professor, VTT, FIN, 2002-2009

PhD in Software Engineering, Univ. of Oulu, 2002

Software developer & quality manager, 1995-2000

Has lead several large & international projects on agile &

global software development

Currently, the academic coordinator of Cloud Software

Research Programme, 60+MEUR, 30 partners, 2010-2013

ITEA-Achiement Award (silver) winner in 2007, Nokia

Foundation Award 2007

Organized more than 15 international SW conferences

100+ scientific publications

ABRAHAMSSON’S PROFILECYNEFIN FRAMEWORK

Snowden (

In the complex domain..

Emerging capability

Emerging value

Emerging content

Source: Rikkilä et al (LESS 2013 conference)

It’s not over yet!

• Come up with a great idea on what to do with Bobo and win one for yourself!

tinyurl.com/win-a-bobo

Thank you! Reach me at @unibz.it

tinyurl.com/win-a-bobo

tinyurl.com/ciao-bobotinyurl.com/i-want-bobo