Synthesis of sustainability and secureness of software in public applications using deductive-nomological model

Abstract

Sustainability and secureness of software gain prominence when the software application serves public needs. Sustainability of software is an important concept for the agency providing the service, and secureness of software is often a concern of the citizens whose information get processed. There do not exist sufficient theories which adequately explain sustainability and secureness of software which serves some public application. In this work, an attempt was made to synthesize and explain sustainability and secureness of software using a Hempelian deductive-nomological (D-N) model. The covering law for the D-N model capable of explaining software sustainability was derived from world commission's report on sustainable development, and the covering law for the model describing software secureness was derived from standards related to information security management. Using the premises of the D-N model, a software prototype was designed and developed that showed promise of enhancing software sustainability as well as software secureness. A monitoring software associated with a rural employment guarantee scheme was used as a sample case.