Optimizing Business Models and Development Processes: New Tools based on Software-Cluster Research

The free offers, which are available online, build upon a growing data base and offer empirically based recommendations. They are results of research projects within the German Federal Government's Leading-Edge Cluster Competition.

Decisions regarding business models and software development methods in the software industry have often been made more intuitively than empirically. If, for example, the emphasis is on a license model or software as a service (SaaS), will the emphasis be on lean software development or Scrum as the method?

These are questions that start-ups with little experience as well as established companies developing new products or services or subjecting their existing portfolio to close scrutiny need to answer. Companies and research institutes in the Software Cluster encompassing the area surrounding Darmstadt, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, and Saarbrücken are working together in several collaborative projects to maintain and increase the competitiveness of the German software industry. The latest results of this cooperation are the prototypes of two tools available free online:

Business Model Wizard

The Business Model Wizard allows for the comprehensive and standardized description of business models via a web interface. Benchmarking and evaluation of these business models is made possible through comparison with a constantly expanding reference database with current information about more than 500 IT companies in Germany. This results in suggestions for improvement regarding how one's business model can be optimally adapted to current needs. The tool's recommendations are based on the results of the annual “Software Industry Survey” (http://www.softwareindustrysurvey.de).

The Business Model Wizard is based on the contributions of the following partners:
SAP AG, The Technical University Darmstadt, ConWeaver GmbH, The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, The Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics (IGD) and Software AG.

Link to the Business Model Wizard: http://www.software-business-model.com/

Software Process Wizard

Software development processes need to satisfy many demands for quality, speed, and cost. Lean, agile, and traditional methods are available for this purpose. But are they really the right methods for each personal challenge? The “Software Process Wizard” is the prototype of a service which allows you to quickly and conveniently evaluate software development processes and to derive tangible recommendations for optimization. It has been available online since February 2013. Its data basis continues to grow daily. It is based upon interviews with developers from SAP AG, Software AG, and imc AG. The companies also participated in developing the Software Process Wizard.

Link to Software Process Wizard: http://wizard.software-cluster.org