Feedback in Context: Supporting the Evolution of IT-Ecosystems

IT ecosystems consist of dynamically interacting subsystems, components, and services containing software. Companies provide parts of IT ecosystems, e.g. for airports, train stations, and shopping malls. Due to the complex interaction of subsystems, overall behaviour cannot be completely anticipated or engineered. IT ecosystems constantly evolve by adapting to new user requirements and to changes in their environment. On-going improvement requires feedback from users. However, feedback is not easy to get. This paper presents an approach facilitating feedback in context. It is gathered by mobile devices like Smartphones. Effective support for evolution needs to cover (1) identifying the component or subsystem a user wants to address, (2) the ability to send feedback at very low effort and cost, and (3) support for interpreting incoming feedback. We present an architecture, a framework, and an application example to put stakeholder feedback into context. Contextualized feedback supports providers in driving the IT ecosystem evolution.     «

IT ecosystems consist of dynamically interacting subsystems, components, and services containing software. Companies provide parts of IT ecosystems, e.g. for airports, train stations, and shopping malls. Due to the complex interaction of subsystems, overall behaviour cannot be completely anticipated or engineered. IT ecosystems constantly evolve by adapting to new user requirements and to changes in their environment. On-going improvement requires feedback from users. However, feedback is not ea...     »