On the use of emerging decentralised technologies for supporting software factories coopetition

Abstract

Besides the recent adoption of outsourcing and open source business models, software factory is still a centralised process. In spite of the advantages of centralisation, it is widely accepted that decentralised systems are better alternatives; i.e., they are more scalable and reliable and more suitable for market sharing. The implementation of decentralised software factories demands solution of several technical challenges that conventional technology cannot solve. Emerging decentralised technologies (e.g., blockchain and smart contracts) can help to solve these challenges. Decentralised technologies are only emerging, consequently, their potential use to support software factories is a new research avenue. To cast some light on this emerging topic, in this article we provide an analysis of some centralised and decentralised architectures and raise research questions that need attention from the perspective of architecture selection. To frame the discussion, we focus our attention on software architectures for Model Driven Engineering, Asset Specifications and Integration Tools, resulting in a characterisation and analysis of possibilities for implementation of heterogeneous blockchain-oriented repositories.