Creating Minimum Viable Products in Industry-Academia Collaborations

Jürgen Münch, Fabian Fagerholm, Patrik Johnson, Janne Pirttilahti, Juha Torkkel, Janne Järvinen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionScientificpeer-review

Abstract

Customer value determines how products and services succeed in the marketplace. Early assessment of customer value is important for software startups, spin-off companies, and new product development in existing companies. Software technology often influences customer value and typically defines the main competitive advantage in both entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial settings. Value-related feedback from real customers is needed during software development and maintenance, and decision-making should be increasingly based on empirical evidence acquired through experiments. Getting such value-related feedback usually requires a so-called minimum viable product (MVP), i.e., an artefact that is far away from being mature with respect to functionality or quality, but displays characteristics that allows determining its customer value. In this article we report on a case study which used industry-academia collaboration for creating such an MVP. Our goal was to identify strengths and weaknesses of such a way of creating MVPs while providing practical recommendations for improvement. The process followed in the case study was found to be very suitable in creating MVPs, reducing company-specific risks with respect to testing customer-value, and advancing university education.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLean Enterprise Software and Systems : 4th International Conference, LESS 2013, Galway, Ireland, December 1-4, 2013, Proceedings
EditorsB. Fitzgerald, K. Conboy, K. Power, R. Valerdi, L. Morgan, K.-J. Stol
Number of pages15
PublisherSpringer-Verlag
Publication date2013
ISBN (Print)978-3-642-44929-1
Publication statusPublished - 2013
MoE publication typeA4 Article in conference proceedings
EventLean Enterprise Software and Systems - Galway, Ireland
Duration: 1 Dec 20134 Dec 2013
Conference number: 4

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Business Information Processing
PublisherSpringer
Volume167
ISSN (Print)1865-1348
ISSN (Electronic)1865-1356

Fields of Science

  • 113 Computer and information sciences

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