Investigating Conditioning Factors for Transparency in Software Ecosystems

Supplementary material for the paper "Investigating Conditioning Factors for Transparency in Software Ecosystems", published in the Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development (JSERD).

Software Ecosystems (SECO) are a set of actors interacting with a distributed market centered on a common technological platform to develop products and services. In this context, transparency allows third-party developers to learn processes and elements that integrate the SECO platform. This non-functional requirement impacts the coordination of developers and the management of requirements that emerge in SECO. Although it is an essential requirement, there is still a lack of a roadmap on what constitutes transparency in SECO. Thus, this article aims to characterize conditioning factors for transparency in SECO. To do so, we conducted a systematic mapping study (SMS) and a field study to identify and analyze such factors. After investigating the literature, we selected 23 studies to analyze the state-of-the-art about transparency in SECO. Next, we conducted interviews with 16 software developers to characterize the importance of conditioning factors for transparency identified in their interaction with GitHub, a platform to support project-based ecosystems. As results, we obtained a comprehensive view of solutions, conditioning factors, processes, and concerns related to transparency in SECO, whose discussion is centered on three main topics: access to information, communication channels, and requirements engineering. We also present a conceptual framework that structures all the knowledge about transparency in SECO obtained in both studies. Regarding implications for academia and industry, researchers can find a conceptual framework to be used as a foundation for systematic approaches to understanding transparency in SECO. Practitioners can find solutions and conditioning factors that help them to adopt initiatives to contribute to the open flow of information in a SECO and, thus, attract and engage new actors to a common technological platform.

发表于《软件工程研究与发展期刊》（Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development，简称JSERD）的论文《软件生态系统透明度的影响因素研究》的补充材料。

软件生态系统（Software Ecosystems，简称SECO）是指围绕统一技术平台构建分布式市场，各类参与者在此生态中交互以开发产品与服务的集合体。在此语境下，透明度可使第三方开发者了解集成该SECO平台的各类流程与元素。该非功能性需求会影响开发者间的协作以及SECO中涌现的需求管理工作。尽管透明度是一项核心非功能性需求，但目前仍缺乏针对SECO透明度构成要素的系统性指引框架。

因此，本研究旨在明确界定SECO透明度的影响因素。为此，本研究开展了系统性映射研究（Systematic Mapping Study，简称SMS）与实地调研，以识别并分析上述影响因素。在文献调研阶段，我们筛选出23项相关研究，用以分析SECO透明度领域的当前研究前沿。随后，我们对16名软件开发者开展访谈，以明确在其与支持项目型生态的平台GitHub的交互过程中，所识别出的透明度影响因素的重要性层级。

研究结果显示，我们全面梳理了与SECO透明度相关的各类解决方案、影响因素、流程及关切点，相关讨论围绕三大核心主题展开：信息获取、沟通渠道与需求工程。此外，本研究还构建了一套概念框架，用以整合两项调研中获取的所有SECO透明度相关知识。

针对学术界与工业界的应用价值而言，研究者可借助本研究提出的概念框架，作为系统性探究SECO透明度的研究基础。行业从业者则可参考本研究提出的解决方案与影响因素，制定相关举措以推动SECO内的信息开放流通，进而吸引并凝聚更多参与者加入统一技术平台生态。