The use of software solutions is one way to improve NPD processes. However, this practice is still underestimated due to the lack of a comprehensive selection process of software toward the necessities of SME´s NPD. Therefore, this paper presents a method that allows SME to analyze and select software, on their own, which supports NPD processes. The method systematizes the search of empirical knowledge about NPD best practices. This knowledge may be updated by a community of practices based on previous experiences of selecting and applying new solutions to NPD. This can be reused as a background for enterprises to define their criteria without starting from the very beginning. This paper also reports an empirical application which highlights the criteria used to select the software.