Modeling and Analyzing Openness Trade-Offs in Software Platforms: A Goal-Oriented Approach

Mahsa H. Sadi and Eric Yu
1
Department of Computer Science
University of Toronto
Modeling and Analyzing Openness
Trade-Offs in Software Platforms
A Goal-Oriented Approach
Feb 28th, REFSQ 2017, Germany

Open Innovation
Software organizations open up their processes and
platforms to external developers
To use external ideas and paths to market
External developers
A part of a software ecosystem offering applications
2
Background
Chesbrough, H. W. (2006). Open innovation: The new imperative for creating
and profiting from technology. Harvard Business Press.
Fitzgerald, B. (2006). The transformation of open source software. MIS
Quarterly, 587-598.

Open Platforms
A platform on top of which 3rd party applications
can be built
The source code is not necessarily available
Extension mechanisms allow sufficient access
3
Background
Boudreau, K. (2010). Open platform strategies and innovation: Granting
access vs. devolving control. Management Science, 56(10), 1849-1872.
Fitzgerald, B. (2006). The transformation of open source software. MIS
Quarterly, 587-598.
Bosch, J., & Bosch-Sijtsema, P. (2010). From integration to composition: On
the impact of software product lines, global development and ecosystems.
Journal of Systems and Software, 83(1), 67-76.

4
Example – Mobile Platforms

5
Other Examples of Open Platforms

6
Problem Statement
Opening up platforms is a non-trivial problem
Openness requirements are in competition with
security, performance, controllability
e.g. Distributing features versus maintainability
Boudreau, K. (2010). Open platform strategies and innovation: Granting access vs.
devolving control. Management Science, 56(10), 1849-1872.
Ghazawneh, A., & Henfridsson, O. (2013). Balancing platform control and external
contribution in third‐party development: the boundary resources model.
Information Systems Journal, 23(2), 173-192.
West, J. (2003). How open is open enough?: Melding proprietary and open source
plat-form strategies. Research policy, 32(7), 1259-1285.

7
Research Objective
To help identify suitable design strategies for
opening up a software platform

8
Contributions of this Study
1. Requirements and Concerns in Open
Software Platforms
2. Modeling and Analysis of Requirements in
Open Software Platforms

9
Requirements and Concerns in Open
Software Platforms
Requirements in Open
Software Platforms
Openness
Requirements
General Platform
Design Concerns
Business-Level
Openness
Requirements
System-Level
Openness
Requirements

The specific concerns and quality requirements
that openness introduces on platform designs
10
Openness Requirements

Openness Requirements
Business-level openness requirements
The motivations for opening up the platform
Non-technical, related to the social, business, and
organizational environment of the platform
System-level openness requirements
Technical, related to the quality of software design
11

Customer-Related Objectives
Stickiness of the Platform
Growing the network size of complementary
applications hardens switching to a different
platform
12
Business-Level
Openness Requirements – Example
Popp, K. M. (2010). Goals of Software Vendors for Partner Ecosystems–A
Practitioner´ s View. In Software Business (181-186). Springer Berlin
Heidelberg.
Bosch, J. (2012). Software ecosystems: Taking software development beyond
the boundaries of the organization. Journal of Systems and Software, 85(7),
1453-1454.

Extensibility
The ease of adding a new application to a platform
Can be further refined into:
Composability, Deployability, Stability, Configurability
13
System-Level
Openness Requirements – Example
Bosch, J., & Bosch-Sijtsema, P. (2010). From integration to composition: On
the impact of software product lines, global development and ecosystems.
Journal of Systems and Software, 83(1), 67-76.
Bosch, J. (2010). Architecture challenges for software ecosystems. In
Proceedings of the Fourth European Conference on Software Architecture:
Companion Volume (pp. 93-95).

The requirements possibly violated or at risk in
open platforms
14
General Concerns in Designing
Software Platforms

Security
Possible defective or malicious code in external
applications may disable the overall system
The integrity of platform services and data
The confidentiality and privacy of the end-users’ data
Correct operation of features developed by multiple parties
15
General Concerns in Designing
Software Platforms – Example
Scacchi, W., & Alspaugh, T. A. (2013). Processes in securing open
architecture soft-ware systems. In Proceedings of International Conference
on Software and System Pro-cess.
Knauss, E., Yussuf, A., Blincoe, K., Damian, D., & Knauss, A. (2016).
Continuous clarification and emergent requirements flows in open-
commercial software ecosystems. Requirements Engineering, 1-21

Two Characteristics of the Identified Requirements
Non-Functional, related to:
• Quality requirements (e.g. Accessibility, Extensibility)
• Business objectives (e.g. Stickiness, Ecosystem gravity)
Interacting with each other:
• Competition
• Synergy
16
Summary of the First Part

17
Contributions of this Study
1. Requirements and Concerns in Open
Software Platforms
2. Modeling and Analysis of Requirements in
Open Software Platforms

18
The Proposed Approach
Non-Functional Requirements Analysis Method
Chung, L., Nixon, B. A., Yu, E., & Mylopoulos, J. (2012). Non-functional
requirements in software engineering (Vol. 5). Springer Science & Business Media.

19
The Case Under Study - 1
AUTOSAR Platform
An Operating System for automotive platforms
Functionalities: Controlling the electronic
units of a vehicle
(e.g. the speed, the brakes, the windows)
Opened up to a variety of 3rd party applications
(Certified, uncertified)
Eklund, U., & Bosch, J. (2014). Architecture for embedded open
software ecosystems. Journal of Systems and Software, 92, 128-142.

20
The Case Under Study - 2
The Specific feature under study
The design of Data Provision Service
• How platform communicates data with 3rd party
apps
• How 3rd party applications communicate data with
each other
Objective: Revisit the Design of Data Provision
Service

Domain-Specific Design Requirements
21
Step 1: Identifying and Prioritizing
Requirements - 1

Domain-Specific Design Requirements
22
Requirements - 2
Performance | High
Response Time
Access-Time
Security [Platform]|High
Integrity
Availability
Dependability

23
Requirements - 3
Security
[Platform]
Consistency
[Data]
Accuracy
[Platform Data]
Integrity
[Platform Data]
Help
Help
Help
Dependendability
[Platform]
Help
Performance
[Platform]
Help
Response-
Time
[Platform]
Access Time
[Data]
Help
Help
!!
Help
Availability
[TP App Data]
Help
!!
Operational
Security
[Platform]

24
Requirements - 6
HelpComposability
[Platform]
Decoupling
[TP App]
Help
Deployability
[TP App]
Help Help
Development
Asynchronization
[TP App]
Independent
Behaviour
[TP App]
Openness
[Platform]
Extensibility
[Platform]
Help
!! !!
Decoupling
[Platform]
Help
Help
Independent
Deployment
[TP App]
Help

25
Step 2: Identifying the Design Objective
and Alternative Design Options
Design Objective: To provide data service to 3rd Party
applications

Alternative Design 1: Centralized Data Provision
26
Step 2: Identifying Alternative Design
Options
Platform
3rd
Party
App
3rd
Party
App
3rd
Party
App

27
Step 3: Evaluating design options
against the design requirements
Design Requirement: Response Time
[Platform]: Access Time [Data]
Evaluation: (-)
All data operation requests should pass
through a central gateway and a queue
controlled by the platform.
Platform
3rd
Party
App
3rd
Party
App
3rd
Party
App
Centralized Data Provision

28
Analyzing the Fulfillment of Design
Requirements in Centralized Data Provision
Centralized
data provision
HelpComposability
[Platform]
Decoupling
[TP App]
Help
Deployability
[TP App]
Help Help
Development
Asynchronization
[TP App]
Independent
Behaviour
[TP App]
Security
[Platform]
Consistency
[Data]
Openness
[Platform]
Extensibility
[Platform]
Accuracy
[Platform Data]
Integrity
[Platform Data]
Help
Help
Help
Help
Help
Help
Help
T1
!! !!
Dependendability
[Platform]
Help
Performance
[Platform]Help
Response-Time
[Platform]
Access Time
[Data]
Help
Help
Help
!!
Decoupling
[Platform]
Help
Hurt
Operational
Security
[Platform] Help
Availability
[TP App Data]
Help
Hurt
Help
Independent
Deployment
[TP App]
Help
Help
✔
!!
Help
G: Provide Data
[To third-party applications]
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔✔✔
✔
✔
✔
✔✔ ×
×
×
×

Openness Requirement
Composability [Platform]
Priority: High
Deployability
[Third-Party Applications]
Priority: High
Security Requirement
Availability [Third-Party Applications]
Priority: High
Integrity [Platform Data]
Priority: High
Performance Requirement
Response Time
[Platform]
Priority: High
Denied
Partially Denied
Conflict
Partially Satsificed
Satsificed
29
Analysis of Centralized Data Provision
Performance is sacrificed for Openness.

Alternative 1:
Centralized Data
Provision 30
Step 2: Identifying the Alternative
Design Options
Platform
3rd
Party
App
3rd
Party
App
3rd
Party
App
Design Objective: To provide data service to 3rd
Party applications
Alternative 2:
Semi-Centralized
Data Provision
Platform
3rd
Party
App
3rd
Party
App
3rd
Party
App

31
Comparison of the Design Alternatives
Composability [Platform]
Priority: High
Deployability
[Third-Party Applications]
Priority: High
Availability [Third-Party Applications]
Priority: High
Integrity [Platform Data]
Priority: High
Performance Requirement
Response Time
[Platform]
Priority: High
Denied
Partially Denied
Conflict
Partially Satsificed
Satsificed
Option 1: Centralized
data provision
Option 2: Semi-centralized
data provision

32
Discussion
Performance: Crucial for real-time Operations of the
platform
Composability and Deployability: Crucial for
accommodating 3rd party applications overtime
A combination of centralized and semi-centralized
data provision can be used.

33
Summary
Objective:
To identify suitable open platform design strategies
Proposed Solution:
1. Consider openness as a class of non-functional
requirements
2. Refine it in parallel with other important concerns
Use a goal-oriented requirements analysis approach
3. Use it as criteria for selecting a suitable design option
Analyze potential trade-offs
Balance the fulfillment of the requirements

34
Future Work
1. To assess the applicability of the proposed method in
real-world open software platform projects
2. To provide knowledge support for refining openness
requirements
3. To enrich the analytical capabilities of the proposed
method for determining effective openness design
strategies
4. To compare with peer approaches, such as ATAM

35
E-mail: mhsadi@cs.toronto.edu

Modeling and Analyzing Openness Trade-Offs in Software Platforms: A Goal-Oriented Approach

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