SECO for CPS Development Study

This repository contains the artifacts, data, and analyses supporting the empirical study:

"Experiences and Challenges from a Software Ecosystem for Cyber-Physical Systems Development: an Empirical Study on Industry-Academia Collaboration"

The study explores how Software Ecosystems (SECOs) contribute to the development of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs), with a specific focus on collaboration dynamics between industrial and academic partners. The research integrates findings from a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and an opinion survey conducted within the AIDOaRt European project.

---

Repository Structure

• SLR/ — Systematic Literature Review materials, including search protocols, selected papers, analysis results, and challenge taxonomy.
• Questionnaire-Survey/ — Data and insights from a structured opinion survey administered to AIDOaRt partners.
• img/ — Visual material used in the paper and analysis.
• LICENSE — Licensing terms for the use of repository contents.

---

Objectives

This study aims to:

• Identify and classify the main challenges in CPS development within SECOs.
• Examine how industry and academia collaborate in CPS contexts.
• Provide best practices and lessons learned to guide future collaborative SECO development projects.

---

Methodology

1. Systematic Literature Review (SLR): Conducted following Kitchenham and Charters’ guidelines to uncover key research trends, tools, and unresolved issues.
2. Opinion Survey: Empirical data collection from AIDOaRt participants to understand real-world experiences and perceptions.
3. Synthesis: A triangulated analysis was used to merge literature insights with practical evidence.

---

Highlights

• A taxonomy of 14 empirically grounded challenges in SECO-based CPS development.
• Key findings on data management, model-based engineering, and architecture extensibility.
• Examples from three AIDOaRt use cases (Volvo CE, TEKNE, Westermo) illustrating real industrial applications.
• Evidence-based recommendations for improving collaboration and integration across SECO stakeholders.

---

Additional Resources

All data and intermediate analysis artifacts are openly available and traceable in this repository, including:

• Search queries and inclusion/exclusion criteria for the SLR.
• Survey instrument design and raw responses.
• Thematic coding outputs and visualizations.

For additional details, see the related paper and its appendices.

---

How to Cite?

If you use this work in your research or project, please reference it as follows:

@article{MUTTILLO2026112579,
    title = {Experiences and challenges from a software ecosystem for cyber–physical systems development: An empirical study on industry-academia collaboration},
    journal = {Journal of Systems and Software},
    volume = {231},
    pages = {112579},
    year = {2026},
    issn = {0164-1212},
    doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2025.112579},
    url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0164121225002481},
    author = {Vittoriano Muttillo and Romina Eramo and Johan Cederbladh and Per Erik Strandberg and Adnan Ashraf}
}

---