A three-dimensional view of software ecosystems

Abstract

The concept of a Software ecosystem is gaining in popularity amongst large organizations and inherently relies on the adoption of common architectural development for multiple product development. The adoption of these approaches represents a significant shift in traditional software development style and process methodology. Currently several organizations are in practice with this new process model which embraces business, third party involvement and open architecture as its central pillars and these institutions have thrived as a result. The advent of software ecosystems have caused major players in the software industry to rethink their operating practices and engage with third parties, opening their platforms to external entities to attain business objectives. In this paper we present a three dimensional view of the software ecosystem model examine the role played by each of the three central pillars; business; architecture; and social aspects. We further highlight their relationships and conclude that this study will help in further aiding understanding of the overall engineering process of ecosystem software.