SBIR Phase I: Joblet: A System for Creating Software Development Exchanges

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will investigate the feasibility of a unique system, known as Joblet, which offers the potential to improve innovation and success in software engineering. Joblet utilizes economic principles to address areas of software development that have been chronically problematic. Failures in software development have been rampant in many technology industries. This problem has grown as the complexity of software, and the number of developers needed to create it, have grown. Open Source software has demonstrated the power of distributed collaborative development, and has shown that independent, creative individuals can join together to develop innovative products. Joblet combines this power of collaborative development with the concepts of economic markets to enable a software engineering environment that will foster innovation, productivity and project success. The aim of this research is to demonstrate the feasibility of a system that will support Joblet exchanges and study key mechanisms of Joblet that will lead to sustainability of markets for software development services and knowledge. Such a system will have broad application in all areas of software development and can enable the creation of active communities for product innovation. The commercial potential for the Joblet system includes application as a public website for hosted development services, as well as a product for application in private enterprises for internal and outsourced development efforts.