Software organizations are nowadays often advocated as the most innovative ones in the world. While the term "innovation" tends to be even overloaded, there are certainly ample room and many new avenues for further software-based and software-enabled novel ideas and developments.

In general, innovation in software development and with software-intensive systems can be seen and take place at many different levels and contexts:

• software outputs (software design and engineering problem solutions)
• software-based product/service outcomes (benefits)
• long-term impacts and consequences (e.g., new business)

That is, innovation can happen not only within the software (products) but also increasingly in its development and delivery process, software development organizations, and even competitive ecosystems. Consequently, this addresses not only traditional software engineering, but also other related disciplines (such as organizational learning and product innovation management).

The aim of this thesis area is to identify and analyze such current and emerging issues and potential new areas for software development and their organizations. Some specific research questions can be set like this:

• How is innovation and creativity taken into account in software development processes and methods (e.g., Agile)?
• What is the role of customer/user input and feedback in software(-intensive) product creation (e.g., open innovation)?
• How to define and measure 'innovativeness' in software development?
• What makes software development organizations (more) innovative?