Software ecosystems governance to enable IT architecture based on software asset management

Information Technology (IT) supports companies' business processes and decision making through the use of technologies and tools that are provided by suppliers. Companies that are suppliers and consumers establish relationships through contracts of purchasing products and consulting, for example. These relationships, i.e., the companies involved and the information exchanged between the parties are considered elements of Software Ecosystems (SECOs). All of these elements can be considered SECO assets and need to be supported via SECO governance since their organization and evolution represent an IT Architecture. So, IT companies or their IT divisions can use the ISO/IEC 19770 standard for Software Asset Management (SAM) in order to control costs and optimize software investments. In this sense, this paper describes a SECO Governance approach for enabling an IT Architecture based on SAM.