A Systematic Mapping on the Relations between Systems-of-

Systems and Software Ecosystems

Helvio Jeronimo Junior1

Cludia Werner1

{jeronimohjr, werner}@cos.ufrj.br

2

Content

Motivation

Objectives

Research Method Research Questions (RQs)

Search Procedures

Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

Studies Selection Process

Results

Conclusions

3

Motivation The current scenario of software development:

the development of software-intensive and large-scale system

software products and services with different technologies to one or more software platforms

This scenario has attracted the interest of two research topics: Systems-of-Systems (SoS) (Maier, 1998) and Software Ecosystems (SECO) (Messerschimitt & Szypersky, 2003)

However, SoS and SECO are two research topics that seem to have been still separately investigated, although they can be treated in a complementary way (Santos et al, 2014)

4

Objectives Main Objectives:

to identify the relations between these topics (SoS and SECO) and support cooperative and collaborative research

complementing the research performed by Santos et al (2014)

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Research Method Research Questions (RQ):

(RQ1) What are the main similar characteristics and/or differences between SoS and SECO?

(RQ2) What are the main areas studied from the perspective of SoS and SECO?

(RQ3) How can SECO platforms benefit from SoS mindset?

(RQ4) How can SoS benefit from business and social networks?

(RQ5) What are the main challenges and limitations for SoS from the perspective of SECO?

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Search Procedures

Electronic search using the Scopus search engine

Manual search on 3 repositories

International Workshop on Software Ecosystems (IWSECO)

ACM Workshop on Software Engineering for Systems-of-Systems

Workshop on Distributed Software Development, Software Ecosystems and Systems-of-Systems

Research Method

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TITLE-ABS-KEY ((( "software ecosystem*" OR "software supply

network" OR "software vendor*" OR "software supply industry" OR

"industry platform*" OR "ecosystems" ) AND ( "system-of-systems" OR

"system of systems" OR "systems-of-systems" OR systems of systems) )

AND ( "features" OR "feature" OR "characteristic" OR "characteristics"

OR "difference" OR "differences" OR "similarity" OR "similarities" OR

"relationship" OR "implication" OR "consequence" OR "significance"

OR "benefits" OR "impacts" OR "business" OR "business networks"

OR "social" OR "social networks" OR "area" OR "subject area" OR

"subject field" OR "field"))

Search Procedures

The search string used in search engine

Research Method

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(1) only studies written in English

(2) dealing and referencing any of the subjects related to SECO and SoS in their title, abstract or keywords

(3) technical reports, master and doctorate theses

(1) repeated studies found in different sources

(2)duplicate studies reporting similar results

(3) description of proceedings

(4) inaccessible studies

Inclusion Criteria Exclusion Criteria

Research Method

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Studies Selection Process

Result of Search Inclusion/exclusion

criteria applied Papers selected

Automatic Search 71 15 8

Manual Search 7 3 3

Total 78 18 11

Table1. The summarization of the selection process to identify relevant papers

Research Method

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Results (RQ1) What are the main similar characteristics and

differences between SoS and SECO?

the importance given to interaction and collaboration among the different internal or external actors of the SECOs and SoS

multiple products over one or more technologial platform

prioritization of business goals and requirements, innovation, and possible competitiveness (among players)

platforms, software and artifacts developed by internal and external actors

Architectural stability

decentralized/distributed systems

9

6

9

2

2

1

Number

of

studies

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Results (RQ1) What are the main similar characteristics and

differences between SoS and SECO?

SECOs can be seen as an application domain for SoS

SoS is a type of SECO

Number

of

studies

1

1

12

Results (RQ2) What are the main areas studied from the

perspective of SoS and SECO?

Technical aspects linked to design of architecture

Some Quality

Attributes

7

7

Reuse of software and components

3

Evolution, assessment and sustainability (platforms/software)

4

Interation and relationship

7

13

Results (RQ3) How can SECO platforms benefit from SoS

mindset?

By adopting methods, mechanisms and techniques to support the structuring of architecture platforms and their software products

By exploring in a more detailed way concepts and characteristics of SoS, such as those virtual and collaborative categories

1

3

Number

of

studies

14

Results (RQ4) How can SoS benefit from business and social

networks?

By enabling the creation of a community of internal actors and from third parties that cooperate and share technical knowledge

By providing a potential to structure collaborative business models and processes in order to consider the players perspectives of value

By providing opportunities to minimize and amortize the costs, as well as technical and business risks

Number

of

studies

7

5

4

15

Results (RQ5) What are the main challenges and limitations

for SoS from the perspective of SECO?

Reuse of software and components

3

Software Licenses

2

Opening of platforms and systems

4

Organizational strategies and business models with partners

7

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Conclusions The findings reinforce and increase the scope of the

discussions presented by Santos et al. (2014a)

The relationships between SoS and SECO are associated to specific issues of the three dimensions (social, technical and business) of a SECO

regarding platforms, software products and their architectures (challenges)

However, SoS evolutionary development should also take into account the business and social issues, and not only the environments technical issues

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Conclusions Regarding the treats to validity of this study, the main

ones can be associated to:

an eventual omission of studies and bias in the extraction of data

the possible existence of relevant papers that do not mention the keywords that were chosen

the number of electronic used databases, since only the Scopus search engine was used in this systematic mapping study

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The selected studies ID Reference

S1 Da Silva Amorim, S. et al. (2014) When Ecosystems Collide: Making Systems of Systems Work. In:

Proceedings of the 2014 European Conference on Software Architecture Workshops. ACM, p. 29.

S2 Axelsson, J. et al. (2014) Characteristics of software ecosystems for Federated Embedded Systems: A

case study. Information and Software Technology, v. 56.11, pp.1457-1475.

S3 Lutz, M. et al. (2014) "Service Robot Control Architectures for Flexible and Robust Real-World Task

Execution: Best Practices and Patterns." In: Workshop Roboter-Kontrollarchitekturen.

S4 Papatheocharous, E. et al. (2013) Issues and challenges in ecosystems for federated embedded systems.

In: Proc. of the First International Workshop on Software Engineering for Systems-of-Systems (SESoS).

ACM, pp. 21-24.

S5 Delicato, F. C. et al. (2013) Towards an IoT ecosystem In: Proc. of the First International SESoS. ACM,

pp. 25-28.

S6 Mattmann, C. et al. (2012) Developing an open source strategy for NASA earth science data systems.

In: IEEE 13th International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration, pp. 687-693.

S7 Chen, H. M., Kazman, R. (2012) Architecting ultra-large-scale green information systems." In: Green and

Sustainable Software (GREENS), 2012 First International Workshop on. IEEE, pp. 69-75.

S8 Hawryszkiewycz, I. T. (2011) Open Modeling For Designing Community Ecosystems." In:

https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/research/handle/10453/19216. Last accessed on: Jun, 2015.

S9 Kazman, R. et al. (2012) Scaling up software architecture analysis". Journal of Systems and Software,

85.7, pp. 1511-1519.

S10 Santos, R. et al. (2014) "On the Relations between Systems-of-Systems and Software Ecosystems." In:

WDES 2014, pp. 58-62.

S11 Lytra, I. et al. (2015) "Reusable Architectural Decision Models for Quality-driven Decision Support: A

Case Study from a Smart Cities Software Ecosystem. In: 3th International SESoS.

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A Systematic Mapping on the Relations between Systems-of-

Systems and Software Ecosystems

Helvio Jeronimo Junior1

Cludia Werner1

{jeronimohjr, werner}@cos.ufrj.br

Thank you!

Acknowledgment: