Antero Järvi

How to Define Software-as-a-Service – An Empirical Study of Finnish SaaS Providers

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a relatively new and much hyped model of software delivery where the software is procured as a service over the Internet. We found that there were several different definitions of SaaS. Based on these definitions, we distilled a list of five characteristics that are required for a firm to be considered a SaaS provider. Using survey data from the Finnish software industry, we tested the proposed criteria. Closer examination of the survey indicated the criteria were necessary but not sufficient. Therefore, we extended the criteria to better grasp the phenomenon and tested the changes through a qualitative validation. Also, we found that while a large number of firms are producing software that is technically SaaS, pure SaaS-based business models are much more rare in Finland.

Revenue Models of Application Developers in Android Market Ecosystem

Mobile application ecosystems have growth rapidly in the past few years. Increasing number of startups and established developers are alike offering their products in different marketplaces such as Android Market and Apple App Store. In this paper, we are studying revenue models used in Android Market. For analysis, we gathered the data of 351,601 applications from their public pages at the marketplace. From these, a random sample of 100 applications was used in a qualitative study of revenue streams. The results indicate that a part of the marketplace can be explained with traditional models but free applications use complex revenue models. Basing on the qualitative analysis, we identified four general business strategy categories for further studies.

Wealthy, Healthy and/or Happy — What does ‘Ecosystem Health’ Stand for?

The health of a software ecosystem is argued to be a key indicator of well-being, longevity and performance of a network of companies. In this paper, we address what scientific literature actually means with the concept of ‘ecosystem health’ by selecting relevant articles with systematic literature review. Based on the final set of 38 papers, we found that despite a common base, the term has been used to depict a wide range of hoped characteristics of a software ecosystem. However, the number of studies addressing the topic is shown to grow while empirical studies are still rare. Thus, further studies should aim to standardize the terminology and concepts in order to create a common base for future work. Further work is needed also to develop early indicators that warn and guides companies on problems with their ecosystems.

Variable quality image compression system based on SPIHT

An algorithm for variable quality image compression is given. The idea is to encode different parts of an image with different bit-rates depending on their importance. Variable quality image compression (VQIC) can be applied when a priori knowledge on some regions or details being more important than others is available. Our target application is digital mammography, where high compression rates achieved with lossy compression are necessary due to the vast image sizes, while relatively small regions containing signs of cancer must remain practically unchanged. We show how VQIC can be implemented on top of SPIHT (Said and Pearlman, 1996), an embedded wavelet encoding scheme. We have revised the algorithm to use matrixes, which gives more efficient implementation both in terms of memory usage and execution time. The effect of the VQIC on the quality of compressed images is demonstrated with two test pictures: a drawing and a more relevant mammogram image.

Lean Software Startup – An Experience Report from an Entrepreneurial Software Business Course

This paper offers blueprints for and reports upon three years experience from teaching the university course “Lean Software Startup” for information technology and economics students. The course aims to give a learning experience on ideation/innovation and subsequent product and business development using the lean startup method. The course educates the students in software business, entrepreneurship, teamwork and the lean startup method. The paper describes the pedagogical design and practical implementation of the course in sufficient detail to serve as an example of how entrepreneurship and business issues can be integrated into a software engineering curriculum. The course is evaluated through learning diaries and a questionnaire, as well as the primary teacher’s learnings in the three course instances. We also examine the course in the context of CDIO and show its connection points to this broader engineering education framework. Finally we discuss the challenges and opportunities of engaging students with different backgrounds in a hands-on entrepreneurial software business course.

Reducing the number of unit tests with design by contract

Design by Contract (DbC) and unit testing (UT) are complementary approaches to improve the belief of correctness and the quality of the software. The interplay between the two techniques has been studied previously, e.g., in the use of test oracles and test automation. However, we propose that DbC should drive the UT to become more cost-effective. The paper demonstrates some means for this approach by showing how to test a mapping data structure entirely with just one unit test script.

Developer Driven Approach to Situational Method Engineering

This position paper reflects SME into software development. We argue that to apply SME in software development projects, construction of method fragments should also take place during the project by the method users. The topic is current due to two key technologies, EPF and SPEM, that enable illustrative and prompt method construction. The paper looks at the relevant background in both SME and software development processes, identifies four levels of method management work, discusses the method reuse strategy, and presents an example of on-the-fly method construction.

Characterization of radiographic trabecular bone structure with Gabor wavelets

We propose a new method for non-invasive measurement of structural properties of radiographic trabecular pattern for a quantitative characterization of trabecular bone architecture. The method actively searches for radiographic shadows that originate from individual trabecular elements. These shadows are used for measuring structural properties of trabecular bone. Filtering with Gabor wavelets is used to produce orientation and scale-specific channels for the extraction of trabecular structures. We give a design of the Gabor wavelet for his application. The performance of our method is visualized with radiographs form various anatomical sites showing the outlines of the detected trabecular elements superimposed on the radiograph.

Knitting Company Performance and Board Interlocks

A board of directors is a supreme organism of a modern company. Often, a single board member has a place in several companies’ management teams. This is called a board interlock and its impact on a single board member, companies and the economics on the whole has been studied for decades. However, there is a lack of understanding how software companies’ board of directors interlock as the field is driven by knowledge and relations more heavily than the other fields. Therefore, well-connected board members could be a vital competitive advantage for companies. This study presents a quantitative analysis of 262 Finnish software companies, their boards and performance. The results show that neither high board interlocks nor foreign board members are remarkably related on the performance of companies. The implications of the findings are discussed and future research inquiries are proposed.

Tutorial: SaaS Business – Theory and Practice

Description. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) will affect the business of most IT and software companies, as well as the client organizations’ IT function. Yet, software buyers and even software vendors are still somehow unfamiliar with the exact definition of the Software as a Service. Is it a whole new business model, an adjustment to revenue and distribution model, or just a new deployment technology? It appears that SaaS is not just a technical issue, but affects profoundly the way businesses provide and use software.