Uma ferramenta web para apoiar a modelagem de ecossistemas de software utilizando a notação SSN

Abstract

Software Ecosystems (SECO) are a set of actors and components that work as a unit, relating based on a common interest to provide solutions or services for the software industry. Or even, SECO can be called by a set of actors that interact with each other, in a community and with a unit that in turn, interact with a market distributed between software and services, together with the relationships between the most varied entities. As a company or organization expands its relationships and begins to interact with external actors, an SECO is formed that includes both the actors and the artifacts involved in this new network. The actors present in an ecosystem can have different roles, which, as in natural ecosystems, can directly influence its balance and functioning. The notation SSN - Software Supply Network, that is, the diagram of software supply networks, is a series of software, hardware and connected service organizations, which cooperate to meet market demands. For a better visualization and understanding of an SECO, recent studies propose the modeling of the formed network, however, there is still no formalized modeling pattern for this area. An eminent problem in the literature is the lack of support for modeling using SSN notation, lack of available models and maintenance of models in general, as well as the use of the suggested notation correctly. In this context, the research carried out by this work, aimed to develop a web tool to support the SECO modeling using SSN notation in a correct way in its entirety, with the functionality of dragging, dropping, connecting, manipulating graphic figures and exporting the model of SECO created in different PNG and SVG image formats and in XML and JSON formats that allow importing into the tool for possible edits and maintenance on the model, in order to alleviate the referred problem, which is the lack of a modeling tool using the proposed notation. , as well as evaluating the proposed tool in the educational context, to consolidate the functionalities proposed in the tool, measure the users’ experience and support the teaching of SECO in the disciplines of Software Engineering with the aim of expanding the literature.