LightCDD: a lightweight capability-driven development method for start-ups

Abstract

Novice innovators and entrepreneurs face the risk of designing naive business models. In fact, lack of realism and failing to envision contextual constraints is one of the main threats to start-up success. Both the literature and the responses we gathered from experts in incubation confirm this problem. Capability Driven Development (CDD) is an integrated approach consisting of a method, tools, and best practices. It has proved to be successful when applied to mature enterprises that intend to become context-aware and adaptive. In this paper we report on the application of CDD to two start-up projects and how, despite being useful in making the entrepreneurs aware of dynamic business environments and constraints, a trade-off analysis showed that a simpler version of the method was necessary. Therefore, we present LightCDD, a context-aware enterprise modelling method that is tailored for business model generation. It reduces the set of modelling constructs and guidelines to facilitate its adoption by entrepreneurs, yet keeping it expressive enough for their purposes and, at the same time, compatible with CDD methodology. We also discuss what implications this simplification has with regard to the CDD tool environment.