KPIs for Software Ecosystems: A Systematic Mapping Study

To create value with a software ecosystem (SECO), a platform owner has to ensure that the SECO is healthy and sustainable. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are used to assess whether and how well such objectives are met and what the platform owner can do to improve. This paper gives an overview of existing research on KPI-based SECO assessment using a systematic mapping of research publications. The study identified 34 relevant publications for which KPI research and KPI practice were extracted and mapped. It describes the strengths and gaps of the research published so far, and describes what KPI are measured, analyzed, and used for decision-making from the researcher’s point of view. For the researcher, the maps thus capture state-of-knowledge and can be used to plan further research. For practitioners, the generated map points to studies that describe how to use KPI for managing of a SECO.