A focus area maturity model for software ecosystem governance

Context: Increasingly, software companies are realizing that they can no longer compete through product excellence alone. The ecosystems that surround platforms, such as operating systems, enterprise applications, and even social networks are undeniably responsible for a large part of a platform's success. With this realization, software producing organizations need to devise tools and strategies to improve their ecosystems and reinvent tools that others have invented many times before. Objective: In this article, the software ecosystem governance maturity model (SEG-M2) is presented, which has been designed along the principles of a focus area maturity model. The SEG-M2 has been designed for software producing organizations to assess their ecosystem governance practices, set a goal for improvement, and execute an improvement plan. Method: The model has been created following an established focus area maturity model design method. The model has been evaluated in six evaluating case studies with practitioners, first by applying the model to their organizations and secondly by evaluating with the practitioners whether the evaluation and improvement advice from the model is valid, useful, and effective. Result: The model is extensively described and illustrated using six desk studies and six case studies. Conclusions: The model is evaluated by both researchers and practitioners as a useful collection of practices that enable decision making about software ecosystem governance. We find that maturity models are an effective tool in disseminating a large collection of knowledge, but that research and creation tooling for maturity models is limited.