Extract

The term ecosystem has emerged as a commonly-used notion in software economy (Messerschmitt and Szyperski, 2003). To put it simply, a software ecosystem comprises a set of businesses that function as a single unit, instead of each participating enterprise acting individually. Ecosystems often rely on a shared platform on top of which different parties contribute their own, company-specific innovations (Bosch, 2009). Then, the cost of developing the platform is shared by a number of companies, each of which is free to extend it with their own modules. Similarly, all the participants gain the benefits of joint investment in the platform. A platform used for establishing an ecosystem comprises numerous facets (Jansen et al, 2009). From the engineering perspective, a software ecosystem provides the technology for implementation, environment for the overall software project infrastucture and a development methodology that is aligned with the goals of the ecosystem. Additionally, for the ecosystem to foster, social, legal and business aspects must also be considered in addition to the technological perspective. Consequently, the ecosystem can be viewed as a business and governance model with marketing as one of the strategical advantages.