Treating social dimension in software ecosystems through ReuseECOS approach

Since systems and software development processes present challenges beyond the technical side, Software Ecosystems (SECOs) have emerged as an approach to improve Software Engineering (SE) mindset in industry, considering relations among companies and stakeholders. Developing a system has been changed to designing and maintaining a platform and its interface in order to support multiple products developed by a set of distributed and different third-part developers. This fact changes software industry because it requires linking an architectural, a business and a social-based environment in an integrated way and it focuses on software reuse processes. This concern motivated a proposal of a framework for SECOs management and engineering called ReuseECOS. The approach aims at outlining a set of steps that combines those three bases (or dimensions) of SECOs and joins different perspectives in SECOs research literature through a survey. In this paper, the focus is on the last dimension, that is, the social one. A preliminary analysis, done on a Software Reuse Lab's SECOs at COPPE/UFRJ, points out that concepts explored by researchers can be merged in a broader SE approach.