Background: Continuous experimentation (CE) has been proposed as a data-driven approach to software product development. Several challenges with this approach have been described in large organisations, but its application in smaller companies with early-stage products remains largely unexplored. Aims: The goal of this study is to understand what factors could affect the adoption of CE in early-stage software startups. Method: We present a descriptive multiple-case study of five startups in Finland which differ in their utilisation of experimentation. Results: We find that practices often mentioned as prerequisites for CE, such as iterative development and continuous integration and delivery, were used in the case companies. CE was not widely recognised or used as described in the literature. Only one company performed experiments and used experimental data systematically. Conclusions: Our study indicates that small companies may be unlikely to adopt CE unless 1) at least some company employees have prior experience with the practice, 2) the company's limited available resources are not exceeded by its adoption, and 3) the practice solves a problem currently experienced by the company, or the company perceives almost immediate benefit of adopting it. We discuss implications for advancing CE in early-stage startups and outline directions for future research on the approach.
翻译:继续实验(CE)是作为数据驱动软件产品开发的一种方法提出的。在大型组织中已经描述了这一方法的几项挑战,但这一方法在拥有早期产品的较小公司中的应用基本上仍未得到探讨。目的:本研究的目的是了解哪些因素可能影响早期软件启动阶段采用CE。方法:我们对芬兰5个新创办企业进行了描述性多重案例研究,这些新创办企业在利用实验方面各不相同。结果:我们发现,在案例公司中经常提到作为CE先决条件的做法,例如迭代开发和连续整合及交付。CE没有得到广泛的承认或像文献中描述的那样被广泛使用。只有一家公司进行了实验并系统地使用实验数据。结论:我们的研究显示,小公司可能不太可能采用CE,除非(1) 至少一些公司雇员在实践方面有经验,(2)公司有限的可用资源不会因采用而超过,(3) 实践解决了公司目前遇到的问题,或公司认为采用CE做法几乎立即产生效益。我们讨论了在早期启动和今后研究方向上对推进CE做法的影响。