SECO-AM: An Approach for Maintenance of IT Architecture in Software Ecosystems

Abstract

Systems used by an organization to achieve business objectives are supported by technologies included in its technological platform, creating a software ecosystem (SECO). Modifications on these technologies can lead essential systems to lose performance or support. Thus, IT managers and architects should pay attention while making changes by not only accounting for information on technologies, but also considering their relationships. Such information may be spread in different documents and also difficult to analyze mostly due to the organizational complexity and lack of tooling support. The purpose of this work is to assist IT managers and architects in making decisions as regards to IT architecture modification, i.e., the set of technologies that supports products and services of an organization. Firstly, critical factors for maintaining IT architecture were investigated through a systematic mapping and a survey research. As a result, an approach to support technology assessment and analysis was defined, exploring the network structure that represents the organization's ecosystem. A tool implementing the key features of the proposed approach was developed, including visualization of SECO networks and configuration of well-defined criteria. Finally, both the approach and tool were evaluated through a feasibility study on the technology and concepts acceptance within a specific, real scenario. A positive feedback on the approach's relevance and tool's resources was observed.