Wealthy, Healthy and/or Happy — What does ‘Ecosystem Health’ Stand for?

Abstract

Abstract. The health of a software ecosystem is argued to be a key indicator of well-being, longevity and performance of a network of companies. In this paper, we address what scientific literature actually means with the concept of 'ecosystem health' by selecting relevant articles with systematic literature review. Based on the final set of 38 papers, we found that despite a common base, the term has been used to depict a wide range of hoped characteristics of a software ecosystem. However, the number of studies addressing the topic is shown to grow while empirical studies are still rare. Thus, further studies should aim to standardize the terminology and concepts in order to create a common base for future work. Further work is needed also to develop early indicators that warn and guides companies on problems with their ecosystems.

What Do Package Dependencies Tell Us About Semantic Versioning?

“…We assume all version numbers to be of the form x.y.z (where all three version components are positive integers). Package releases with a version number in the [1.0.0, +∞[ version range are called production releases 3 Package releases can express dependencies on other packages. If package release R depends on package P , R is called a dependent, while P is called a required package.…”

“…These packaging ecosystems can suffer from a wide variety of health problems, that can be of social or businessrelated nature, or related to technical issues [2], [3]. This paper focuses on the technical health issues of package dependency networks.…”

Mapping the systematic literature studies about software ecosystems

“…It identifies the goals of software ecosystems in which the KPI are applied. [32] Systematic review focused on the concept of "ecosystem health", which refers to a set of key indicators of well-being, longevity and performance of the software ecosystem. [26] It conducts a mapping of the literature focused on different aspects of ecosystems, product lines and strategic innovations in the development of embedded software and systems products.…”

“…Finally, there are 5 studies that go in depth in a particular characteristic or technique related to software ecosystems: 1 paper about requirements engineering [28]; 1 paper that analyses the governance mechanisms in SECO [24]; 1 paper focused on key performance indicators (KPIs) [30]; 1 paper about "ecosystem health" which refers to a set of key indicators of well-being, longevity and performance of a SECO [32]; and 1 paper about how to document or describe SECOs [25].…”

Is Ecosystem Health a Useful Metaphor? Towards a Research Agenda for Ecosystem Health Research

“…The widespread use implies that the ecosystem analogy has been viewed to provide value-added for research. At the same time, the use of ecosystem analogy has also been criticized (see for example Oh et al 2016;Hyrynsalmi et al 2015a, Mäntymäki & Salmela 2017.…”