Sustainability in software engineering - A systematic mapping

Abstract

Information Technology (IT) has become a key element in our everyday life, and one of humanity’s current challenges is to conserve the environment and attain a sustainable IT development. Therefore, it has become increasingly important how environmentally friendly a software product is during its life cycle and the effects on the environment related to the development, exercise, maintenance and disposal of the software product. The purpose of this study is to outline recent development of frameworks and guidelines in sustainable software engineering. A systematic mapping was conducted which focuses on practices and models that are being used or proposed in this regard. The results reveal different types of models and different criteria for evaluating sustainability properties. In addition, the study indicates an increase of interest in this field in recent years whereas results suggest a handful of prominent authors and venues publishing research within the scope of sustainable software engineering.