A study about architectural requirements in a transition from product to software platform

Software ecosystems gained attention from the industry by establishing a network of users, partners, and service providers. Several companies are interested in establishing their own ecosystems due to the business advantages they bring. However, it is not clear how a company should go about doing this. This paper describes a case study about the transition from a software product to a software platform aimed at supporting an ecosystem. A software platform is responsible for managing an ecosystem's extensions, therefore its software architecture is essential to facilitate the establishment of an ecosystem. This transition is supported by a set of architectural requirements for a software platform that we introduce. We also discuss the required changes in the software product architecture to support a platform.