Software Engineering Applications enabled by Blockchain Technology: A Systematic Mapping Study

The novel, yet disruptive blockchain technology has witnessed growing attention, due to its intrinsic potential. Besides the conventional domains that benefit from such a potential, such as finance, supply chain and healthcare, blockchain use cases in software engineering have emerged recently. This study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge of blockchain-oriented software engineering. Based on a systematic mapping study, we provide a quantitative and qualitative overview of the software engineering applications enabled by blockchain technology. We identified 22 primary studies and extracted data within the research type, research topic and contribution type facets. Findings suggest an increasing trend of studies since 2018. Additionally, findings reveal the potential of using blockchain technologies as an alternative to centralized systems, such as GitHub, Travis CI, and cloud-based package managers, and to establish trust between parties in collaborative software development. We also found out that smart contracts can enable the automation of a variety of software engineering activities that usually require human reasoning, such as the acceptance phase, payments to software engineers, and compliance adherence. In spite of the fact that the field is not yet mature, we believe that this study provides a holistic overview that may benefit researchers interested in bringing blockchain to the software industry; and practitioners willing to understand how blockchain could transform the software development industry.

新颖且兼具颠覆性的区块链（Blockchain）技术凭借其内在潜力，愈发受到各界关注。除金融、供应链与医疗保健等已从中获益的传统应用领域外，区块链在软件工程领域的应用场景近年来也逐渐涌现。本研究旨在为面向区块链的软件工程领域的知识体系建设贡献力量。本研究基于系统映射研究（Systematic Mapping Study），对区块链技术赋能的软件工程应用展开了定量与定性综述。本研究共纳入22项原始研究，并从研究类型、研究主题与贡献类型三个维度提取相关数据。研究结果显示，自2018年以来相关研究数量呈逐年增长趋势。此外，研究结果还表明，区块链技术可作为GitHub、Travis CI与基于云的包管理器等中心化系统的替代方案，同时能够在协同软件开发场景中为参与方建立信任机制。本研究同时发现，智能合约（Smart Contracts）可实现多种通常需要人工决策的软件工程活动的自动化，例如验收流程、向软件工程人员支付报酬以及合规性遵循等。尽管该领域目前尚不成熟，但本研究提供的全景式综述，有望为有志于将区块链技术引入软件产业的研究人员，以及希望了解区块链如何重塑软件开发行业的从业者提供参考与助益。