Survey on Trust in Software Engineering for Autonomous Dynamic Ecosystems

Software systems across various application domains are undergoing a major shift, from static systems of systems to dynamic ecosystems characterized by largely autonomous software agents, engaging in mutual coalitions and partnerships to complete complex collaborative tasks. One of the key challenges facing software engineering along with this shift, is our preparedness to leverage the concept of mutual trust building among the dynamic system components, to support safe collaborations with (possibly malicious or misbehaving) components outside the boundaries of our control. To support safe evolution towards dynamic software ecosystems, this paper examines the current progress in the research on trust in software engineering across various application domains. To this end, it presents a survey of existing work in this area, and suggests the directions in which further research is needed. These directions include the research of social metrics supporting trust assessment, fine-grained quantification of trust-assessment results, and opening the discussion on governance mechanisms responsible for trust-score management and propagation across the integrated software ecosystems.