IWSM2014 MEGSUS14 - A general overview of software sustainability measurement (Coral Calero)
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This document provides an overview of software sustainability measurement. It discusses the different dimensions of software sustainability including social, economic, and environmental (greenability). Several existing measurement approaches are described for each dimension. For software greenability, many works have focused on measuring energy consumption and efficiency at the process, product, and system levels. Overall, the document outlines the current state of software sustainability measurement and the need for continued research to better understand and quantify social, economic, and environmental impacts.
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IWSM2014 MEGSUS14 - A general overview of software sustainability measurement (Coral Calero)
- 1. A general overview of Software Sustainability Measurement Coral Calero Grupo Alarcos Escuela Superior de Informática Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha Rotterdam, October 6th, 2014
- 2. Agenda Introduction to Software Sustainability From Software Sustainability to Software Greenability Software Sustainability Measurement overview Conclusions and future work Coral Calero 2
- 3. Introduction to Software Sustainability Coral Calero 3
- 4. Introduction to Software Sustainability Coral Calero 4 The ability to be maintained at a steady level without exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage Of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that Sustainability the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged Sustainable development is the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy their own needs A sustainable world is one in which humans can survive without jeopardizing the continued survival of future generations of humans in a healthy environment Sustainability can be discussed with reference to a concrete system and implies the capacity for endurance given the functioning of this Sustainability is the capacity to endure and, for humans, the potential for long-term maintenance system. Sustainability can be viewed as one more central quality attribute in a row with the standard quality attributes of correctness, efficiency, and so forth The Collins dictionary The Merriam-Webster dictionary Brown et al., 1987 Penzedstadler et al., 2014 Penzestadler and Fleischmann, 2011 UN Brutland Report, 1987 Penzestadler and Fleischmann, 2011
- 5. Introduction to Software Sustainability Coral Calero 5 Although there is a general assumption that relates sustainability to the “capacity of something to last a long time”, this is a restrictive interpretation, since two fundamental pillars related to it
- 6. Introduction to Software Sustainability Coral Calero 6 If we apply the concept of sustainability to the software arena, it may have an influence at several “levels” Information Systems ((IISS)) SSuussttaaiinnaabblliittyy Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Sustainability IInnffoorrmmaattiioonn TTeecchhnnoollooggyy ((IITT)) SSuussttaaiinnaabbiilliittyy SSooffttwwaarree ((SSww)) SSuussttaaiinnaabbiilliittyy Software Engineering (SE) Sustainability A complete compilation of these definitions can be found in Calero and Piattini (2014)
- 7. From Software Sustainability to Software Greenability Coral Calero 7 Software Sustainability Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Environmental Sustainability (Software Greenability)
- 8. From Software Sustainability to Software Greenability Coral Calero 8 The UN identifies three dimensions for sustainable development. We have related them to software as follows: Software Sustainability Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Environmental Sustainability (Software Greenability) Related to software use (by whom, how and under what circumstances software may be used) Related to aspects of the software business, but not to its development Deals with technical aspects of software development.
- 9. From Software Sustainability to Software Greenability Coral Calero 9 Several concepts related to Green Software can be found (green software, green through software, green in Green IT software, etc). For us: Green IT Green IN IT Green IN Software Green BY IT Green Sw Green Hw Green BY Software Green IN Hardware Green BY Hardware When the IT is the tool used to support sustainability goals When the green is related to the IT, software or hardware in themselves
- 10. From Software Sustainability to Software Greenability Coral Calero 10
- 11. Software Sustainability Measurement overview Coral Calero 11
- 12. Coral Calero 12 Software Sustainability Measurement overview Software sustainability areas in which measurement can be applied. Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 13. Software Sustainability Measurement Coral Calero 13 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...) There are some groups are working on Software Social Sustainability and Software Greenability. Few efforts as regards the economic dimension.
- 14. Social Sustainability Measurement In Johann and Maalej (2013) the authors discuss the importance of social sustainable software. They do not propose any measures, but propose a complete reflection on aspects that must be taken into account and the need for a quality model for social sustainable software is included. Coral Calero 14 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 15. Social Sustainability Measurement Coral Calero 15 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...) In Al Hinai and Chitchyan (2014), the results of an initial review of social sustainability indicators are shown. They identify twelve categories of social sustainability indicators (employment, health, equity, education, security, services and facilities, resilience, human rights, social acceptance of technology, social cohesion, cultural and political).
- 16. Software Greenability Measurement The GREENSOFT Model (Naumann et al., 2011)is a complete model that contains four parts: The life cycle of a software product, Some criteria and metrics that represent sustainability aspects that are directly and indirectly related to the software product, Procedure models for the different phases, and Some recommendations for action, in addition to tools. Coral Calero 16 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 17. Software Greenability Measurement Albertao et al (2010) present a set of software engineering measures that can be used to assess the sustainability of software projects, showing how to use them. Coral Calero 17 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 18. Software Greenability Measurement With regard to software systems, several papers present measures: Shridaran et al. (2013) propose some measures related to the energy consumption in Joules, and the efficiency of the system Wassman et al (2013) propose the total power consumption of a computer system based on the consumption of the CPU, the HDD and the idle part, along with the consumption of some other components. Guimbetreiere et al. (2014) present a measure for the system energy consumption Coral Calero 18 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 19. Software Process Greenability Measurement There are not very many works related to the measurement of software process greenability. We only can mention that of Lami et al (2013) in which three process measures are proposed. Coral Calero 19 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 20. Software Product Greenability measurement This is perhaps the area in which most work can be found. There is a tendency in the software engineering community to apply the fundamentals of software measurement to software product greenability. Coral Calero 20 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 21. Software Product Greenability measurement In Kern et al (2013), the authors use the GREENSOFT model as a basis to describe a model with which to measure the energy efficiency of software, in addition to presenting an example of how to apply the measurements. Coral Calero 21 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 22. Software Product Greenability measurement Bozzelli et al (2013) is a SLR on green metrics is presented. As a result the authors obtain 96 measures The eventual conclusion is that most of the efforts are related to energy consumption and saving dimensions. This corroborates the results obtained in Calero et al. (2012), another SLR resulting in 61 measures, most of which focused on power consumption. Coral Calero 22 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 23. Software Product Greenability measurement In Akini et al (2014) a set of measures related to the software quality product are presented together with software quality criteria. They apply Analytical Network Process (ANP) to determine the relationships among quality and environmental attributes and the relative priorities of attributes. Coral Calero 23 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 24. Software Product Greenability measurement Penzenstadler (2014) presents a checklist and guide word based approach concerning how to include the objective of environmental sustainability from the very early steps by finding the stakeholders and analyzing the domain for the definition of a usage model and specific requirements. Coral Calero 24 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 25. Other Software Aspects Measurement There is some efforts related to green BPM. Zeise et al (2012) present criteria derived from common performance measurement systems that are suitable for measuring the performance of companies as regards sustainability. Coral Calero 25 Software Sustainability Measurement Software Social Sustainability Software Economic Sustainability Software Greenability Software Greenability Green BY Software Green IN Software Green IN Software Software Engineering (process, product, ...) Other aspects (Business process, Governance, ...)
- 26. Conclusions and Future work Coral Calero 26
- 27. Conclusions and Future work Software sustainability is a very important research topic (and it will be more). It is necessary to eliminate confusions and misunderstandings on concepts and terms used. There are different levels and perspectives of software sustainability measurement. Much more work is needed We must raise awareness on the part of all those involved with software: companies that develop software, buyers and users. Coral Calero 27
- 28. 28 Coral Calero
- 29. A general overview of Software Sustainability Measurement Coral Calero Coral.Calero@uclm.es Details on references can be found in the paper
Editor's Notes
- several definitions of sustainability can be found in literature: • The Collins dictionary [2], defines Sustainability as “the ability to be maintained at a steady level without exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage”. • A similar definition of ‘sustainable’ can be found in the Merriam-Webster dictionary: “of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged” [3]. • According to [4], a sustainable world is broadly defined as “one in which humans can survive without jeopardizing the continued survival of future generations of humans in a healthy environment" • In [5], the authors state that “sustainability can be discussed with reference to a concrete system (ecological system, a specific software system, etc.), therefore, global sustainability implies the capacity for endurance given the functioning of all these systems in concert”. • “Sustainability is the capacity to endure and, for humans, the potential for long-term maintenance” [6]. • From another perspective, Sustainability can be viewed as “one more central quality attribute in a row with the standard quality attributes of correctness, efficiency, and so forth” [6]. These same authors also defined the term Sustainable development as being that which “includes the aspect to develop a sustainable product, as well as the aspect to develop a product using a sustainable development process”. • The United Nations (UN)’ Brundtland report defines sustainable development as the ability to “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy their own needs” [7]. According to the UN, sustainable development needs to satisfy the requirements of three dimensions, which are society, the economy, and the environment. • In [8], the author identifies the same dimensions as those defined in the aforementioned UN report for sustainable development: economic development, social development and environmental protection: o “Environmental sustainability ensures that the environment is able to replenish itself at a faster rate than it is destroyed by human actions. For instance, the use of recycled material for IT Hardware production helps to conserve natural resources o Social development is concerned about creating a sustainable society which includes social justice or reducing poverty. In general all actions that promote social equity and ethical consumerism and o The economic pillar ensures that our economic growth maintains a healthy balance with our ecosystem; it integrates environmental and social concerns into business”. Of all the definitions shown above, the most widely-used is that established by the United Nations (UN)’ Brundtland report [7].
- Although there is a general assumption that relates sustainability to the capacity of something to last a long time, if we take a close look at the definitions proposed, we can observe that this is a restrictive interpretation, since two fundamental pillars that underpin sustainability can be identified: “The capacity of something to last a long time” and “the resources used” (see Fig. 1).
- If we attempt to apply the concept of sustainability to the software arena, we find that sustainability may have an influence at several “levels”, depending on the topic to which it is applied: Information Systems, ICT, Software, etc. (see Fig. 2). It is obviously also possible to find definitions for each of these levels. A complete compilation of these definitions can be found in Calero and Piattini (2014). This paper will be focused specifically on the software sustainability level. There are several areas in which software sustainability needs to be applied: software systems, software products, web applications, data centers, etc. In general, works regarding the first of these areas are currently being developed, but are mostly focused on data centers (owing to their significant energy consumption). However, energy efficiency has not been taken into consideration to any great extent (at least until recently) from the software point of view and, as noted in [29], software plays a major role, both as part of the problem and as part of the solution.
- The UN identifies three dimensions for sustainable development – social sustainability, economical sustainability and environmental sustainability [1]. These dimensions do not of course refer specifically to software, and we have therefore related them to software as follows: Social sustainability is related to software use (by whom, how and under what circumstances software may be used); Economic sustainability is related to aspects of the software business, but not to its development; Environmental sustainability deals with technical aspects of software development. As mentioned previously, software product development mainly affects the environment via the consumption of resources, which occurs during its use and production. The most direct (and obvious) impact of a software product is energy consumption, but other resources may also have a negative impact on software’s sustainability. We term the environmental dimension of sustainability in the software context as green software or software greenability (Fig. 3).
- With regard to the definition of Green Software, literature is once again rather chaotic as regards concepts, and it is possible to find terms such as green software, green through software, green in software, etc. A graphical manner in which to represent all these concepts by clarifying their relationships is presented in Fig. 4. This representation (taken from Calero and Piattini, 2014) differentiates between Green IN (when the green is related to the IT, software or hardware in themselves) and Green BY (when the IT is the tool used to support sustainability goals). In general, the definitions of green software mix these two perspectives, one exception being that provided by [50] who define Green Software as “an application that produces as little waste as possible during its development and operation”.
- ISO/IEC/IEEE Systems and Software Engineering Vocabulary (SEVOCAB) defines software engineering as “the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software; that is, the application of engineering to software” [64]. This definition allows us to define Green in Software Engineering as those practices which permit the application of the engineering to software by taking into consideration environmental aspects. The development, the operation, and the maintenance of software are therefore carried out in a green manner and produce a green software product (Fig. 6).
- In this section, Fig. 7 will be used as a basis to show a snapshot of what the software sustainability measurement currently looks like. As an example, we shall present some measures and/or indicators defined for each of the levels shown in Fig. 7 (when possible). In some cases, we shall also provide some useful references that include revisions of the literature and can be used as a good point of start.
- If we take into consideration all the definitions and concepts provided previously in this paper, we can identify several areas in which measurement can be applied. At the highest level, it is possible to measure software sustainability by measuring each of the three dimensions: software social sustainability, software economic sustainability and software greenability. If the last dimension is explored in greater depth, it is possible to measure aspects of green IN software or aspects of Green BY Software (although this is further from a software engineer perspective and we will not go in depth on it). Again, going down the levels and as a part of the Green IN software, it would be possible to measure aspects directly related to software engineering or to other aspects of software (such as Business Process, governance, etc). Finally, as part of the green in software engineering it would be possible to measure the greenability of the process, of the product, of the operation, etc. The measurement levels related to software sustainability are summarized in Fig. 7.
- At the highest level, several groups are working on Software Social Sustainability and Software Greenability. However, there are fewer efforts as regards the economic dimension. In Johann and Maalej (2013) the authors discuss the importance of social sustainable software. Although they do not propose any measures, a complete reflection on aspects that must be taken into account and the need for a quality model for social sustainable software is included. This is therefore a very good starting point as regards how to create the social sustainability software measurement. One year later, in Al Hinai and Chitchyan (2014), the results of an initial review of social sustainability indicators are shown. As a result of the study, the authors obtain more than 600 indicators of social sustainability, concluding that at the most abstract level the indicators are divided into two main categories: Community (directly related to individuals and groups within a given society, their health, education, equality, etc.) and Culture and Governance indicators (concerned with the cultural and political issues of a given society). This is used as a basis to present twelve categories of social sustainability indicators (employment, health, equity, education, security, services and facilities, resilience, human rights, social acceptance of technology, social cohesion, cultural and political).
- At the highest level, several groups are working on Software Social Sustainability and Software Greenability. However, there are fewer efforts as regards the economic dimension. In Johann and Maalej (2013) the authors discuss the importance of social sustainable software. Although they do not propose any measures, a complete reflection on aspects that must be taken into account and the need for a quality model for social sustainable software is included. This is therefore a very good starting point as regards how to create the social sustainability software measurement. One year later, in Al Hinai and Chitchyan (2014), the results of an initial review of social sustainability indicators are shown. As a result of the study, the authors obtain more than 600 indicators of social sustainability, concluding that at the most abstract level the indicators are divided into two main categories: Community (directly related to individuals and groups within a given society, their health, education, equality, etc.) and Culture and Governance indicators (concerned with the cultural and political issues of a given society). This is used as a basis to present twelve categories of social sustainability indicators (employment, health, equity, education, security, services and facilities, resilience, human rights, social acceptance of technology, social cohesion, cultural and political).
- At the highest level, several groups are working on Software Social Sustainability and Software Greenability. However, there are fewer efforts as regards the economic dimension. In Johann and Maalej (2013) the authors discuss the importance of social sustainable software. Although they do not propose any measures, a complete reflection on aspects that must be taken into account and the need for a quality model for social sustainable software is included. This is therefore a very good starting point as regards how to create the social sustainability software measurement. One year later, in Al Hinai and Chitchyan (2014), the results of an initial review of social sustainability indicators are shown. As a result of the study, the authors obtain more than 600 indicators of social sustainability, concluding that at the most abstract level the indicators are divided into two main categories: Community (directly related to individuals and groups within a given society, their health, education, equality, etc.) and Culture and Governance indicators (concerned with the cultural and political issues of a given society). This is used as a basis to present twelve categories of social sustainability indicators (employment, health, equity, education, security, services and facilities, resilience, human rights, social acceptance of technology, social cohesion, cultural and political).
- We shall not present references to works on green by software as there is a huge amount of them and, as mentioned previously, we argue for efforts specifically focused on the software discipline. The GREENSOFT Model [Naumann] is a complete model that contains four parts: The life cycle of a software product, some criteria and metrics that represent sustainability aspects that are directly and indirectly related to the software product, procedure models for the different phases, and some recommendations for action, in addition to tools. Albertao et al () present a set of software engineering measures that can be used to assess the sustainability of software projects, showing how to use them. With regard to software systems, several papers present measures. For example, Guimbetreiere presents a measure for the system energy consumption, while Shridaran also proposes some measures related to the energy consumption in Joules, and the efficiency of the system and Wassman proposes the total power consumption of a computer system based on the consumption of the CPU, the HDD and the idle part, along with the consumption of some other components.
- We shall not present references to works on green by software as there is a huge amount of them and, as mentioned previously, we argue for efforts specifically focused on the software discipline. The GREENSOFT Model [Naumann] is a complete model that contains four parts: The life cycle of a software product, some criteria and metrics that represent sustainability aspects that are directly and indirectly related to the software product, procedure models for the different phases, and some recommendations for action, in addition to tools. Albertao et al () present a set of software engineering measures that can be used to assess the sustainability of software projects, showing how to use them. With regard to software systems, several papers present measures. For example, Guimbetreiere presents a measure for the system energy consumption, while Shridaran also proposes some measures related to the energy consumption in Joules, and the efficiency of the system and Wassman proposes the total power consumption of a computer system based on the consumption of the CPU, the HDD and the idle part, along with the consumption of some other components.
- We shall not present references to works on green by software as there is a huge amount of them and, as mentioned previously, we argue for efforts specifically focused on the software discipline. The GREENSOFT Model [Naumann] is a complete model that contains four parts: The life cycle of a software product, some criteria and metrics that represent sustainability aspects that are directly and indirectly related to the software product, procedure models for the different phases, and some recommendations for action, in addition to tools. Albertao et al () present a set of software engineering measures that can be used to assess the sustainability of software projects, showing how to use them. With regard to software systems, several papers present measures. For example, Guimbetreiere presents a measure for the system energy consumption, while Shridaran also proposes some measures related to the energy consumption in Joules, and the efficiency of the system and Wassman proposes the total power consumption of a computer system based on the consumption of the CPU, the HDD and the idle part, along with the consumption of some other components.
- There are not very many works related to the measurement of software process greenability. We only can mention that of Lami et al (2013) in which three process measures are proposed. Development supporting tools’ suitability (percentage of functionalities/features of the tools used supporting development actually used as regards the full set of functionalities/features provided), the dematerialization measure (Number of hardcopies of project’s documents) and the teleconference measure (Percentage of teleconference meetings vs. percentage of face-to-face meetings).
- This is perhaps the area in which most work can be found. There is a tendency in the software engineering community to apply the fundamentals of software measurement to software greenability. We shall present some of the most relevant contributions that can be used as a good starting point in order to explore the software product greenability measurement in greater depth. In Kern et al (2013), the authors use the GREENSOFT model as a basis to describe a model with which to measure the energy efficiency of software, in addition to presenting an example of how to apply the measurements. In Bozzelli et al (2013) a systematic literature review on green metrics is presented. As a result the authors obtain 96 measures that are classified according to measured resources, type of result, application domain and usage. The eventual conclusion is that most of the efforts are related to energy consumption and saving dimensions. This corroborates the results obtained in Calero et al. (2012) in which another systematic literature review was presented resulting in 61 measures, most of which are focused on power consumption. In Akini et al (2014) a set of measures related to the software quality product are presented together with software quality criteria. These authors apply a multi criteria decision making approach: Analytical Network Process (ANP) in order to determine the relationships among quality and environmental attributes and the relative priorities of attributes. The author Penzenstadler (2014) presents a checklist and guide word based approach concerning how to include the objective of environmental sustainability from the very early steps by finding the stakeholders and analyzing the domain for the definition of a usage model and specific requirements. Although this work does not present measures explicitly, the elements in the checklist presented can be interpreted as measures.
- This is perhaps the area in which most work can be found. There is a tendency in the software engineering community to apply the fundamentals of software measurement to software greenability. We shall present some of the most relevant contributions that can be used as a good starting point in order to explore the software product greenability measurement in greater depth. In Kern et al (2013), the authors use the GREENSOFT model as a basis to describe a model with which to measure the energy efficiency of software, in addition to presenting an example of how to apply the measurements. In Bozzelli et al (2013) a systematic literature review on green metrics is presented. As a result the authors obtain 96 measures that are classified according to measured resources, type of result, application domain and usage. The eventual conclusion is that most of the efforts are related to energy consumption and saving dimensions. This corroborates the results obtained in Calero et al. (2012) in which another systematic literature review was presented resulting in 61 measures, most of which are focused on power consumption. In Akini et al (2014) a set of measures related to the software quality product are presented together with software quality criteria. These authors apply a multi criteria decision making approach: Analytical Network Process (ANP) in order to determine the relationships among quality and environmental attributes and the relative priorities of attributes. The author Penzenstadler (2014) presents a checklist and guide word based approach concerning how to include the objective of environmental sustainability from the very early steps by finding the stakeholders and analyzing the domain for the definition of a usage model and specific requirements. Although this work does not present measures explicitly, the elements in the checklist presented can be interpreted as measures.
- This is perhaps the area in which most work can be found. There is a tendency in the software engineering community to apply the fundamentals of software measurement to software greenability. We shall present some of the most relevant contributions that can be used as a good starting point in order to explore the software product greenability measurement in greater depth. In Kern et al (2013), the authors use the GREENSOFT model as a basis to describe a model with which to measure the energy efficiency of software, in addition to presenting an example of how to apply the measurements. In Bozzelli et al (2013) a systematic literature review on green metrics is presented. As a result the authors obtain 96 measures that are classified according to measured resources, type of result, application domain and usage. The eventual conclusion is that most of the efforts are related to energy consumption and saving dimensions. This corroborates the results obtained in Calero et al. (2012) in which another systematic literature review was presented resulting in 61 measures, most of which are focused on power consumption. In Akini et al (2014) a set of measures related to the software quality product are presented together with software quality criteria. These authors apply a multi criteria decision making approach: Analytical Network Process (ANP) in order to determine the relationships among quality and environmental attributes and the relative priorities of attributes. The author Penzenstadler (2014) presents a checklist and guide word based approach concerning how to include the objective of environmental sustainability from the very early steps by finding the stakeholders and analyzing the domain for the definition of a usage model and specific requirements. Although this work does not present measures explicitly, the elements in the checklist presented can be interpreted as measures.
- This is perhaps the area in which most work can be found. There is a tendency in the software engineering community to apply the fundamentals of software measurement to software greenability. We shall present some of the most relevant contributions that can be used as a good starting point in order to explore the software product greenability measurement in greater depth. In Kern et al (2013), the authors use the GREENSOFT model as a basis to describe a model with which to measure the energy efficiency of software, in addition to presenting an example of how to apply the measurements. In Bozzelli et al (2013) a systematic literature review on green metrics is presented. As a result the authors obtain 96 measures that are classified according to measured resources, type of result, application domain and usage. The eventual conclusion is that most of the efforts are related to energy consumption and saving dimensions. This corroborates the results obtained in Calero et al. (2012) in which another systematic literature review was presented resulting in 61 measures, most of which are focused on power consumption. In Akini et al (2014) a set of measures related to the software quality product are presented together with software quality criteria. These authors apply a multi criteria decision making approach: Analytical Network Process (ANP) in order to determine the relationships among quality and environmental attributes and the relative priorities of attributes. The author Penzenstadler (2014) presents a checklist and guide word based approach concerning how to include the objective of environmental sustainability from the very early steps by finding the stakeholders and analyzing the domain for the definition of a usage model and specific requirements. Although this work does not present measures explicitly, the elements in the checklist presented can be interpreted as measures.
- This is perhaps the area in which most work can be found. There is a tendency in the software engineering community to apply the fundamentals of software measurement to software greenability. We shall present some of the most relevant contributions that can be used as a good starting point in order to explore the software product greenability measurement in greater depth. In Kern et al (2013), the authors use the GREENSOFT model as a basis to describe a model with which to measure the energy efficiency of software, in addition to presenting an example of how to apply the measurements. In Bozzelli et al (2013) a systematic literature review on green metrics is presented. As a result the authors obtain 96 measures that are classified according to measured resources, type of result, application domain and usage. The eventual conclusion is that most of the efforts are related to energy consumption and saving dimensions. This corroborates the results obtained in Calero et al. (2012) in which another systematic literature review was presented resulting in 61 measures, most of which are focused on power consumption. In Akini et al (2014) a set of measures related to the software quality product are presented together with software quality criteria. These authors apply a multi criteria decision making approach: Analytical Network Process (ANP) in order to determine the relationships among quality and environmental attributes and the relative priorities of attributes. The author Penzenstadler (2014) presents a checklist and guide word based approach concerning how to include the objective of environmental sustainability from the very early steps by finding the stakeholders and analyzing the domain for the definition of a usage model and specific requirements. Although this work does not present measures explicitly, the elements in the checklist presented can be interpreted as measures.
- Finally, but of no less importance, there is also some efforts related to green BPM. We refer any interested readers to the book ‘Green Business Process Management’ (vom Brocke et al, 2012). More specifically, Zeise et al (2012) present criteria derived from common performance measurement systems that are suitable for measuring the performance of companies as regards sustainability.
- Although still in its early stages, software sustainability is a very important research topic that will be of great importance in the next few years. Like any immature discipline, there is some confusion and misunderstanding with regard to the concepts and terms used. In this paper we have attempted to clarify the different levels and perspectives that can be taken into account when discussing software sustainability measurement. What appears to be clear is that although some work is being developed at this very moment, more is needed in order to achieve the sustainability goals desired for software. Moreover, together with the measurement work, it is necessary to raise awareness on the part of all those involved with software: the companies that develop software, those who buy it and also the people who use it. This is the only way in which our efforts to contribute toward sustainability will succeed.