The aim of this course is to create a prototype and business plan for a novel software product.
A software product is defined as a packaged configuration of software components or a software-based service with auxiliary materials, which is released for and traded in a specific market.
In this course the creation, production and organization of product software will be discussed and elaborated in depth:
- Requirements management: prioritization for releases, tracing en tracking, scope management
- Architecture and design: variability, product architectures, internationalization, platforms, localization and customization
- Development methods: prototyping, realization and maintenance, testing, configuration management, delivery; development teams
- Knowledge management: web-based knowledge infrastructures,
- Protection of intellectual property: NDA, Software Patents
- Organization of a product software company: business functions, financing, venture capital, partnering, business plan, product/service trade-off, diversification
This course is explicitly meant for students Information Science and Computer Science.
Students can join the course either with a product idea or without. In both cases your participation in the course must be formally approved.
Pre-arranged or mixed teams are are no problem, it is the product idea that matters.
To get approval send your product idea or your willingness to participate in a product to both Sjaak Brinkkemper and Gerard Wagenaar, who are coordinating this course.
After you have become part of an approved product team your application to the course will be finalized.
After the course students can continue working on the product in the Utrecht student software incubator, Netherware.
Netherware provides product and business coaching, access to a financial network, and the possibility to perform a master thesis project on the product.
Course form
This course is run in the virtual software company Netherware.
The students form teams around their own product idea, and produce a design and a prototype of the product or service. The students also play a horizontal role in Netherware: Finance, Project Office, Human Resource Management, Technology, Marketing, and Investor Relations.
The Netherware company is running during 12 hours of the week; 4 on Wednesday and 8 on Friday.
In this time the following activities take place:
- work on deliverables, product, or service
- workshop with participatory knowledge transfer
- progress meetings of the product teams
- horizontal role activities
- reporting to the Netherware management
- presentations of Netherlands entrepreneurs in product software
Literature
We will use several papers and articles during the course.
Optional: Micheal Cusumano: The Business of Software, Free Press, ISBN: 074321580X.
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