Sustainability in software and green software has increased attention in software engineering (SE), given the potential of software to contribute positively to sustainable development initiatives. This trend is substantiated by the numerous systematic reviews (SRs) that have been published on the matter. However, a significant gap in understanding remains concerning the sustainability concepts and their dimensions within the field. This tertiary study aims to construct a comprehensive map of sustainability topics in SE. As a result, 80 SRs were selected in this report. A notable lack of consensus exists regarding SE sustainability definitions and the dimensions involved. The environmental dimension is the most frequently reported, capturing 55% of the research focus, with a predominant emphasis on energy efficiency. Approximately 52.5% of studies delve into products related to system performance and evolvability and software architecture. However, limited attention is given to the social, economic, and individual dimensions. Despite the considerable focus on the green dimension, there is a necessity for further research in both empirical primary studies and SRs to enhance the reliability of the findings. Achieving consensus on definitions of terminology and implementing standardized measurement methods are essential steps to advance understanding the sustainable SE.

Video game engines are used in most modern video games because they simplify and speed up development. In addition, some of the most popular engines, such as Unreal Engine 5 (UE5), also integrate visual scripting tools. Visual scripting in UE5, through Blueprints, is a model-driven development approach that replaces text code, like C++, with a visual language of interconnected nodes representing functions and data flows, forming a flowchart-like logic diagram. This approach simplifies game development by abstracting complex code into intuitive, visual models, enabling creators to construct and iterate game components without extensive programming knowledge. Although Blueprint models usually decrease the complexity of implementing components, thus accelerating the development, they might lead to less energy-efficient runtime performance than C++. In this work, we evaluate the energy consumption of three relevant video game components (health system management, inputs processing, and collections operations for an inventory), each implemented with Blueprint models and C++. The results show that the energy consumption per frame when using C++ is up to 48% lower than when using Blueprint models. The combination of artistic and technical profiles in video game developments has favoured the adoption of Blueprint models. However, there is a lack of works analyzing the energy consumption. Until this work, there was no evidence that the success of models for developing video games, like the one under study in this work, was accompanied by a cost in energy consumption for certain situations. Given the huge popularity of video games, this cost in energy might reach up to the equivalent of the energy consumption of 28 million European households.

In the past decade, research on measuring and assessing the environmental impact of software has gained significant momentum in science and industry. However, due to the large number of research groups, measurement setups, procedure models, tools, and general novelty of the research area, a comprehensive research framework has yet to be created. The literature documents several approaches from researchers and practitioners who have developed individual methods and models, along with more general ideas like the integration of software sustainability in the context of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or science communication approaches to make the resource cost of software transparent to society. However, a reference measurement model for the energy and resource consumption of software is still missing. In this article, we jointly develop the Green Software Measurement Model (GSMM), in which we bring together the core ideas of the measurement models, setups, and methods of over 10 research groups in four countries who have done pioneering work in assessing the environmental impact of software. We briefly describe the different methods and models used by these research groups, derive the components of the GSMM from them, and then we discuss and evaluate the resulting reference model. By categorizing the existing measurement models and procedures and by providing guidelines for assimilating and tailoring existing methods, we expect this work to aid new researchers and practitioners who want to conduct measurements for their individual use cases.

Quantum computing is considered a revolutionary technology due to its ability to solve computational problems that are beyond the capabilities of classical computers. However, quantum computing requires great amounts of energy to run. Therefore, a factor in deciding whether to use quantum computing should be not only the complexity of the problem to be solved, but also the energy required to solve it. This paper presents an empirical study developed with the aim of comparing classical and quantum computing in terms of energy efficiency to determine whether the increased power of quantum computers is offset by their higher energy consumption. To achieve this, a variety of problems with different levels of complexity were tested on both types of computers. Specifically, we used the IBM Quantum computers with a maximum of 5 qubits and an Intel i7, as a classical computer. In addition to this we have also analysed the evolution of the quantum computers, performing measurements on three time periods. Our empirical study showed that there is a variability of results obtained in the three time periods and that quantum computing is not recommended for low-complexity problems, given its high energy consumption, particularly when compared to traditional computing.

Abstract Sustainable development is a type of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainability has recently become more and more important for businesses. This has led to what is known as Green BPM (Green business process management), in which sustainability is considered to be a business objective. The objective of this work was to carry out a systematic literature review in order to evaluate how the subject of Green BPM has evolved and how the term “Green BPM” has been conceptualised so as to propose a new definition compiled from those previously formulated; identify the impact of the incorporation of Green aspects into the BPM life cycle stages; and discover the impact of Green BPM research efforts by means of the PDCA (plan‐do‐check‐act) model, thus identifying (1) the goals that have been proposed when Green initiatives are carried out in BPM, (2) the context in which this has been applied, and (3) the performance indicators considered. Finally, we propose a new characteristic, Process Greenability, together with its subcharacteristics, in addition to identifying the relationship between these subcharacteristics and the indicators identified to make them measurable.

Software Quality is a multidimensional concept for which Reliability is considered as a key attribute. Notwithstanding, due to its conceptual complexity, there is no common agreement on what Software Reliability is, thus different stakeholders use a variety of Software Reliability views. With the aim to improve our understanding of what Software Reliability means for industrial stakeholders as well as that of contributing to enhance the industrial applicability of Software Quality Models we propose approaching Software Reliability analysis by using structural model based on representative International Standards, which are industry-oriented. As analysis method, since interested on stakeholders' vision of Reliability we will apply the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchical Process (FAHP) which is designed to manage human assessment, always characterized by a certain degree of vagueness and subjectivity. The rationality of the proposed model and feasibility of the analysis method is proved by the application on a very large industrial system which provides empirical evidence on the conceptual descriptiveness capturing stakeholders' views and industrial applicability in an efficient manner.

Abstract Background Codes of ethics (CoE) are widely adopted in several professional areas, including that of Software Engineering. However, contemporary CoE do not pay sufficient attention to one of the most important trends to have appeared in the last years environmental issues. Aim The aim of this study is to establish a Green CoE for software engineering and Professional Practices (GreCo). Our intention is to cover a wide range of aspects related to sustainability, such as economic, environmental, social, and technical features. We are additionally interested in encouraging software engineers to adopt these aspects. Methods The Green CoE presented is the result of the interaction of several experts in the area. A first version of GreCo, whose starting point was a discussion at the GInSEng workshop, was created by identifying key principles and adapting them to the Green area. Next, various important CoE were reviewed so as to gather the existing references to sustainability or to detect new ones. These elements would then possibly be incorporated into the new code or stimulate the creation of new sustainable principles. Results The final result is the GreCo code, which has been produced by modifying existing principles or by the introduction of new ones.

Background/Context: The objective of achieving higher sustainability in our lifestyles by information and communication technology has lead to a plethora of research activities in related fields. Consequently, Software Engineering for Sustainability (SE4S) has developed as an active area of research. Objective/Aim: Though SE4S gained much attention over the past few years and has resulted in a number of contributions, there is only one rigorous survey of the field. We follow up on this systematic mapping study from 2012 with a more in-depth overview of the status of research, as most work has been conducted in the last 4 years. Method: The applied method is a systematic mapping study through which we investigate which contributions were made, which knowledge areas are most explored, and which research type facets have been used, to distill a common understanding of the state-of-the-art in SE4S. Results: We contribute an overview of current research topics and trends, and their distribution according to the research type facet and the application domains. Furthermore, we aggregate the topics into clusters and list proposed and used methods, frameworks, and tools. Conclusion: The research map shows that impact currently is limited to few knowledge areas and there is need for a future roadmap to fill the gaps.

Background: Supporting sustainability in software engineering is becoming an active area of research. We want to contribute the first Systematic Literature Review(SLR) in this field to aid researchers who are motivated to contribute to that topic by providing a body of knowledge as starting point, because we know from own experience, this search can be tedious and time consuming. Aim: We aim to provide an overview of different aspects of sustainability in software engineering research with regard to research activity, investigated topics, identified limitations, proposed approaches, used methods, available studies, and considered domains. Method: The applied method is a SLR in five reliable and commonly-used databases according to the (quasi-standard) protocol by Kitchenham et al. [1]. We assessed the 100 first results of each database ordered by relevance with respect to the search query. Results: Of 500 classified publications, we regard 96 as relevant for our research questions. We sketch a taxonomy of their topics and domains, and provide lists of used methods and proposed approaches. Most of the excluded publications were ruled out because of an unfitting usage of terms within the search query. Conclusions: Currently, there is little research coverage on the different aspects of sustainability in software engineering while other disciplines are already more active. Future work includes extending the study by reviewing a higher number of publications, including dedicated journal and workshop searches, and snowballing.

Abstract In recent years, the Internet has experienced a boom as an information source. The use of search engines is the most common way of finding this information. This means that less visible contents (for search engines) are increasingly difficult or even almost impossible to find. Thus, Web users are forced to accept alternative services or contents only because they are visible and offered to users by search engines. If a company's Web site is not visible, that company is losing clients. Therefore, it is fundamental to assure that one's Web site will be indexed and, consequently, visible to as many Web users as possible. To quantitatively evaluate the visibility of a Web site, this article introduces a method that Web administrators may use. The method consists of four activities and several tasks. Most of the tasks are accompanied by a set of defined measures that can help the Web administrator determine where the Web design is failing (from the positioning point of view). Some tools that can be used for the determination of the measure values also are referenced in the description of the method. The method is furthermore accompanied by examples to help in understanding how to apply it.

Navigability in use, defined as the efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction with which a user navigates through the system in order to fulfil her goals under specific conditions, has a definite impact on the overall success of Web applications. This quality attribute can be measured based on the navigational model (NM) provided by Web engineering (WE) methodologies. Most of the measures currently defined for NMs are tightly coupled with particular WE methodologies, however. Furthermore, modifications to the design of the NM, carried out with the aim of improving navigability, are performed manually. Both practices have seriously hampered the reusability and adoption of proposed navigability measures and improvement techniques. In this paper, we present a Model-Driven Engineering approach to solving these problems. On the one hand, we propose a generic approach for the definition of navigability measurement models that can be integrated into any WE methodology. On the other hand, we present a model-driven improvement process for the NM design that incurs no increase in costs or in time-to-market of Web applications. This process is divided into two phases: evaluation (i.e. assessment of the model through objective measures) and evolution (i.e. transformation of the model when the measurement results do not fall inside the boundaries set by certain quality decision criteria that have been defined previously).

In the software measurement context, there exists a lack of consensus among the concepts and terminology used. Even inconsistencies and terminology conflicts can be detected among standards. For this reason, a software measurement ontology (SMO) has come into existence with the aim of providing a coherent software measurement terminology. In this paper, an example of the use of SMO as framework for the definition of a portlet functionality model is presented. Attributes, measures as well as indicators have been identified for the portlet functionality following the SMO

Advances in technology and the use of the Internet have favoured the appearance of a great variety of Web applications, among them Web Portals. These applications are important information sources and/or means of accessing information. Many people need to obtain information by means of these applications and they need to ensure that this information is suitable for the use they want to give it. In recent years, several research projects were conducted on topic of Web Data Quality. However, there is still a lack of specific proposals for the data quality of portals. In this paper we introduce a model for the data quality in Web portals.

In this paper, and following other proposals, we present a model for classifying the research works done on the software architecture field. We also present some examples of classification. The final objective is not only to have a global vision about the research in this area but also to know where works is lacking.

Metrics are useful mechanisms for assuring database quality. However, it is necessary to prove the practical utility of the metrics because they must be used in real life. Consequently if the metrics are not useful from a practical point of view, they must be rejected. We present the metrics we have proposed for controlling the quality of relational databases and we present the case study developed in a Spanish enterprise aimed at discovering if the metrics are really useful in relation to the purpose for which they were designed, that is to say the control of quality.