Sustainability in Software Engineering: A Design Science Research Approach

Abstract

In the current global context, with so many challenges to be faced, it is important to see people’s increased interest in sustainability is­sues as an opportunity for change. Sustainable Software Engineering, as a recent research area, incorporates sustainability principles and dimensions in the software development process. On the other hand, the Design Science Research methodology has become a well-received research paradigm in Information Systems in general and in Software Engineering in particu­lar. The paper presents a Sustainable Software Engineering approach inte­grated into the Design Science Research methodology. The concepts of sus­tainability in software development, namely the principles of the Karlskro­na Manifesto, the principles of Green Software Engineering and the Sustain­able Development Goals are integrated into the approach. Preliminary re­sults from applying the approach indicate that the iterative process of the Design Science Research methodology allows for the integration of multi­disciplinary sustainability artefacts during the software process.