Misalignment of  Stakeholder Objectives In Software start-ups : A Qualitative research based on Software start-ups in India

Abstract: Context: Misalignment of stakeholder objectives generally takes place in any of the software company irrespective of the small, middle, large scale companies if the misalignment takes place then the goal the project doesn't reach and the objective changes. These misalignment's lead to project failure. Failures of the project in start-ups company some times lead to the shutdown of a company permanently. Minimizing the misalignment in a company means to avoid the risk. Mostly it is more critical for the software start-ups.  Objectives:  The main aim of our research is to know the factors responsible for the misalignment of the stakeholder objectives in software start-ups along with the significant challenges and possible solutions. Methods: In this qualitative research, we conducted the semi-structured interviews from the twelve start-up companies and collected the data for the research questions. The collected information is then thematically analyzed. We referred to many articles from the google scholar to find the significant challenges responsible for the misalignment of the stakeholder objectives. Results:  The main findings in our research are as follows RQ1 external sponsor with his focus on return on investment discussed by the ten out of twelve software start-ups. In the twelve companies, ten companies are dependent on the external sponsor. Human factor and the requirements prioritization are the factors discussed by the six and five interviewees of the start-up companies. The remote working, last-minute change of requirements, deadlines are discussed by two interviewees. The one interviewee discusses the technology factor. In the findings from RQ2, we observed that the challenges related to the humans, return on investment, the external sponsor is more dominant compared to others factors like technology factor, deadlines, remote working, a last-minute change of requirements. In the findings of RQ3, about the possible solutions for the challenges with the misalignment of stakeholder objectives. Conclusions: The results of this study may help the furthers researchers who can research on the misalignment of the stakeholder objectives in software start-ups. These solutions may help the software industry people to minimise the general challenges in future in a better way. This results also may use for the people who want to start a software start-up so that they can know the factors, challenges, solutions of the misalignment of the stakeholder objectives in software start-ups.