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Title: Innovation in Software Development – Comparing Theory and Practice

Project period: January 2007 to June 2007 Project group: Abstract: D616a Participants: Peter Morrud Corneliussen Supervisor: Jeremy Rose No. of copies: 4 No. of pages: 55 Appendices: 3 Date of submitting: 08.06.2007 .

With a textual analysis of the literature on innovative software development and empirical data depicting innovative software development in action, this project strives to answer the three research questions;

1. Is the theoretical data in accordance with the empirical data?

2. Is the idea development process innovative?

3. Based on an analysis of the PayWay PSA, does the development process utilized by the group lead to innovative software?

The research shows that while the model proposed on basis of the textual analysis might not completely comply with the findings in the empirical data, a step towards breaking down the barriers in understanding and defining the concepts of innovation and creativity has been made. Furthermore, this project contributes to the combined literature by proposing a model that has the potential of providing a step towards modeling innovative software development processes as well as tools that, if utilized, might prove to enhance innovative and creative abilities in software developers.