Grupo Alarcos · Conference paper · 2021
Introduction to Software Sustainability
Coral Calero Muñoz, María Ángeles Moraga de la Rubia, Mario Piattini Velthuis
Sustainability is gaining importance worldwide, reinforced by several initiatives that have highlighted the importance of reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint. Although these initiatives highlight ICTs as a key technology in achieving these goals, we must be aware that ICTs can also have a negative impact on the environment. The main objective of this chapter is to provide an overview of the software sustainability concept and its dimensions (human, environmental, and economic), as well as the research efforts related to this area. On the one hand, a review of the literature to define all the concepts related to software sustainability has been carried out. On the other, a bibliometric analysis is used to identify the main forum employed in the area for publishing the works and the percentage of papers related to each of the software sustainability dimensions. Several definitions for the different sustainability levels are presented. As a result of the bibliometric analysis, it can be highlighted that the majority of the papers are published in conferences and are focused on the environmental dimension, whereas the number of books as well as the number of book chapters focused on software sustainability remains low. Regarding the software sustainability dimensions, most of the works are on the environmental dimensions, highlighting the need for more research focused on the human and economic dimensions.