Evaluating Transparency in Software Ecosystem Portals through Developer Experience
Resumo
Software ecosystems (SECO) rely on web portals to provide documentation, tools, architectural information, and communication channels for third-party developers, making transparency a key factor for developer experience (DX). However, transparency in SECO portals is often fragmented, increasing cognitive effort and hindering onboarding, coordination, and participation. This work investigates DX-oriented transparency in SECO portals and proposes SECO-TransP, a framework designed to support the evaluation of transparency in these portals. Following the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM), both artifacts were refined through expert evaluation and a feasibility study in industry. The results indicate that SECO-TransP makes transparency in SECO portals observable and actionable, enabling software engineering practitioners to systematically identify and address transparency barriers that affect developer onboarding, understanding, and sustained participation in SECO.
Referências
Julio Cesar Sampaio Prado Leite and Claudia Cappelli. 2010. Software Transparency. Business & Information Systems Engineering 2 (06 2010), 127–139. DOI: 10.1007/s12599-010-0102-z
Danilo Lima, Flavio Moura, André Alves, Thiago Parracho, Rodrigo Zacarias, Rodrigo Santos, and Marcos Seruffo. 2022. UX-Tracking: Web and Multimodal Tool for User Experience Evaluation. In Anais Estendidos do XXVIII Simpósio Brasileiro de Sistemas Multimídia e Web (Curitiba). SBC, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil, 107–110. DOI: 10.5753/webmedia_estendido.2022.226527
Paulinus Ofem, Bassey Isong, and Francis Lugayizi. 2022. On the Concept of Transparency: A Systematic Literature Review. IEEE Access 10 (2022), 89887–89914. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3200487
Thiago de Moura Parracho, Rodrigo Oliveira Zacarias, Marcos César da Rocha Seruffo, and Rodrigo Pereira dos Santos. 2024. Investigating Factors on Information Consumption by Software Developers on Software Ecosystem Portals. iSys - Brazilian Journal of Information Systems 17, 1 (Apr. 2024), 3:1 – 3:46. DOI: 10.5753/isys.2024.3768
Ken Peffers, Tuure Tuunanen, Marcus Rothenberger, and Samir Chatterjee. 2007. A Design Science Research Methodology for Information Systems Research. J. Manage. Inf. Syst. 24, 3 (Dec. 2007), 45–77. DOI: 10.2753/MIS0742-1222240302
Rodrigo Santos, Eleni Constantinou, Pablo Antonino, and Jan Bosch. 2024. Software Engineering for Systems-of-Systems and Software Ecosystems. Information and Software Technology 165 (2024), 107335. DOI: 10.1016/j.infsof.2023.107335
Rodrigo Oliveira Zacarias. 2025. A Framework for Evaluating Transparency in Software Ecosystem Portals from the Developer Experience Perspective. Ph. D. Dissertation. Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33221.72169
Rodrigo Oliveira Zacarias, Léo Carvalho Ramos Antunes, Márcio de Oliveira Barros, Rodrigo Pereira dos Santos, and Patricia Lago. 2025. Exploring developer experience factors in software ecosystems. Journal of Systems and Software 230 (2025), 112549. DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2025.112549
Rodrigo Oliveira Zacarias, Rodrigo Pereira dos Santos, and Patricia Lago. 2025. Towards an Understanding of Developer Experience-Driven Transparency in Software Ecosystems. arXiv:2509.03848 [cs.SE] [link] Preprint available at: [link].
Rodrigo Oliveira Zacarias, Rodrigo Feitosa Gonçalves, Rodrigo Pereira dos Santos, and Patricia Lago. 2024. Investigating Conditioning Factors for Transparency in Software Ecosystems. Journal of Software Engineering Research and Development 12, 1 (Oct. 2024), 14:1 – 14:25. DOI: 10.5753/jserd.2024.4086
