A Tool for Software Ecosystem Models: An Analysis on Their Implications in Education

• Igor R. Alencar UFC
• Emanuel F. Coutinho UFC
• Leonardo O. Moreira UFC
• Carla I. M. Bezerra UFC

Resumo

Software Engineering (SE) is a discipline that deals with aspects of software production. Often, only the technical aspects are taught in the classes, and the economic and social aspects involved in software development are not reinforced in the classroom. In this context, the concept of a Software Ecosystem (SECO) emerged, defined as a set of actors acting as a unit interacting with a market distributed between software and services, with relationships supported by a technological platform or a common market, carried out by exchanging information, artifacts and resources. SECO teaching is not common in SE classes. However, when adding this knowledge, it is possible to have the benefit of a more global vision of SE, with the relationships between suppliers, technological platforms and customers. Moreover, there is a lack of SECO models and examples in the literature, making its study difficult. This article presents the ARIEL tool, with the aim of mitigating this gap and supporting the teaching of SECO in SE. For this, an user experience evaluation was projected using the DECIDE framework as a reference, with undergraduate and graduate students. As a result of this work, the participants stated it was easy to use the tool and they made few mistakes, most of them felt satisfied when using the tool, and the level of mental effort to carry out the activities is low.

Palavras-chave: Software Ecosystems, Models, Software Engineering, Teaching, Tool, Repository