Defining Software Ecosystems: A Survey of Software Platforms and Business Network Governance

Currently, there is little understanding about how different types of software ecosystems must be governed for the preservation and improvement of ecosystem health. This paper explores the definition of software ecosystems and provides a classification model for software ecosystems. The classification model is applied to 19 cases previously explored in software ecosystem literature, and governance tools are observed for the different types of ecosystems. The governance tools are summarized in a governance model that, when used correctly, serves ecosystem coordinators in determining strategies to maintain and ultimately improve software ecosystem health.

[1]  Slinger Jansen,et al.  A sense of community: A research agenda for software ecosystems , 2009, 2009 31st International Conference on Software Engineering - Companion Volume.

[2]  Steven Sawyer,et al.  Packaged software: implications of the differences from custom approaches to software development , 2000, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[3]  Bernardo A. Huberman,et al.  The laws of the web - patterns in the ecology of information , 2001 .

[4]  E. den Hartigh,et al.  The Health Measurement of a Business Ecosystem , 2006 .

[5]  J. F. Moore,et al.  Predators and prey: a new ecology of competition. , 1993, Harvard business review.

[6]  Slinger Jansen,et al.  Modeling of Product Software Businesses: Investigation into Industry Product and Channel Typologies , 2007, ISD.

[7]  Slinger Jansen,et al.  The power of propagation: on the role of software operation knowledge within software ecosystems , 2011, MEDES.

[8]  Beth A. Bechky,et al.  The Emergence of Governance in an Open Source Community , 2007 .

[9]  Stefan Biffl,et al.  Software ecosystems vs. natural ecosystems: learning from the ingenious mind of nature , 2010, ECSA '10.

[10]  Bala Iyer,et al.  Competing in the Era of Emergent Architecture: The Case of Packaged Software Industry , 2007, 2007 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'07).

[11]  Slinger Jansen,et al.  Pragmatic and Opportunistic Reuse in Innovative Start-up Companies , 2008, IEEE Software.

[12]  Michael A. Cusumano,et al.  The Business of Software: What Every Manager, Programmer, and Entrepreneur Must Know to Thrive and Survive in Good Times and Bad , 2004 .

[13]  H. Kittlaus,et al.  Software Product Management and Pricing: Key Success Factors for Software Organizations , 2009 .

[14]  Gerard Briscoe,et al.  Digital Ecosystems: Evolving Service-Orientated Architectures , 2006, 2006 1st Bio-Inspired Models of Network, Information and Computing Systems.

[15]  Yan-Ru Li,et al.  The technological roadmap of Cisco's business ecosystem , 2009 .

[16]  Slinger Jansen,et al.  Component Assembly Mechanisms and Relationship Intimacy in a Software Supply Network , 2008 .

[17]  Bala Iyer,et al.  Analyzing Complementarities Using Software Stacks for Software Industry Acquisitions , 2006, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[18]  Anthony Finkelstein,et al.  Software acquisition: a business strategy analysis , 2001, Proceedings Fifth IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering.

[19]  A. Gawer.  Platforms, Markets and Innovation , 2011 .

[20]  Birgit Muskat,et al.  The Art of Community. Building the New Age of Participation , 2013 .

[21]  Michael A. Cusumano,et al.  Platform leadership , 2002 .

[22]  Bala Iyer,et al.  Partnerships between Software Firms: Is There Value from Complementarities? , 2008, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2008).

[23]  E. Carmel.  Cycle time in packaged software firms , 1995 .

[24]  Brian F. Nattrass,et al.  The natural step for business : wealth, ecology, and the evolutionary corporation , 1999 .

[25]  Boris Beizer.  Software is Different , 1998 .

[26]  Leenard Baas,et al.  Types of industrial ecology: The problem of coordination , 1997 .

[27]  Olavo Barbosa,et al.  A Systematic Mapping Study on Software Ecosystems , 2011, IWSECO@ICSOB.

[28]  Bala Iyer,et al.  Managing in a “Small World Ecosystem”: Lessons from the Software Sector , 2006 .

[29]  Jan Bosch,et al.  From software product lines to software ecosystems , 2009, SPLC.

[30]  David G. Messerschmitt,et al.  Software Ecosystem: Understanding an Indispensable Technology and Industry , 2003 .

[31]  Slinger Jansen,et al.  Providing Transparency In The Business Of Software: A Modeling Technique For Software Supply Networks , 2007, Virtual Enterprises and Collaborative Networks.

[32]  Slinger Jansen,et al.  A Framework for Software Ecosystem Governance , 2012, ICSOB.

[33]  Slinger Jansen,et al.  Shades of gray: Opening up a software producing organization with the open software enterprise model , 2012, J. Syst. Softw..

[34]  Liming Zhu,et al.  Standardization as a Business Ecosystem Enabler , 2009, ICSOC Workshops.

[35]  James F. Moore.  The Death of Competition: Leadership and Strategy in the Age of Business Ecosystems , 1996 .