Do Small Software Companies Need Portfolio Management?

Portfolio management of new product development has been studied in the context of large companies, but its relevance for small software companies has not been discussed. We conducted a multiple case study of four small software companies. The companies did not practice portfolio management, and seemed to suffer from problems that in the literature are considered symptomatic of inadequate portfolio management. Our study suggests that explicit portfolio management seems warranted in small software companies, at least if the development personnel attend to many different types of activities, possess multiple roles and responsibilities, and product development is funded through customer-specific work.