Background - Startup companies are becoming important suppliers of innovative and software intensive products. The failure rate among startups is high due to lack of resources, immaturity, multiple influences and dynamic technologies. However, software product engineering is the core activity in startups, therefore inadequacies in applied engineering practices might be a significant contributing factor for high failure rates. Aim - This study identifies and categorizes software engineering knowledge areas utilized in startups to map out the state-of-art, identifying gaps for further research. Method - We perform a systematic literature mapping study, applying snowball sampling to identify relevant primary studies. Results - We have identified 54 practices from 14 studies. Although 11 of 15 main knowledge areas from SWEBOK are covered, a large part of categories is not. Conclusions - Existing research does not provide reliable support for software engineering in any phase of a startup life cycle. Transfer of results to other startups is difficult due to low rigor in current studies.

翻译：背景 - 初创公司正成为创新性和软件密集型产品的重要供应方。由于缺乏资源、不成熟、多重影响以及技术动态变化，初创公司的失败率很高。然而，软件产品工程是初创公司的核心活动，因此，应用工程实践中的不足可能是导致高失败率的重要因素。目的 - 本研究识别并分类初创公司中使用的软件工程知识领域，以描绘当前现状，并识别出进一步研究的空白。方法 - 我们进行了一项系统的文献映射研究，运用滚雪球抽样法来确定相关的原始研究。结果 - 我们从14项研究中识别出54种实践。尽管SWEBOK中15个主要知识领域中的11个被涵盖，但大部分子类别并未涉及。结论 - 现有研究未能为初创公司生命周期任何阶段的软件工程提供可靠支持。由于当前研究方法严谨性较低，研究成果难以转移至其他初创公司。