A Taxonomy of Assets for the Development of Software-Intensive Products and Services

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive, structured taxonomy of 57 asset types used in software-intensive product and service development, aiding organizations in asset identification and management.

Contribution

It introduces the first detailed, extendable taxonomy of software development assets based on systematic review and field study, filling a research gap.

Findings

Created a taxonomy with 57 asset types

Identified key asset management challenges

Provided a foundation for future asset degradation studies

Abstract

Context: Developing software-intensive products or services usually involves a plethora of software artefacts. Assets are artefacts intended to be used more than once and have value for organisations; examples include test cases, code, requirements, and documentation. During the development process, assets might degrade, affecting the effectiveness and efficiency of the development process. Therefore, assets are an investment that requires continuous management. Identifying assets is the first step for their effective management. However, there is a lack of awareness of what assets and types of assets are common in software-developing organisations. Most types of assets are understudied, and their state of quality and how they degrade over time have not been well-understood. Method: We perform a systematic literature review and a field study at five companies to study and identify assets to fill the gap in research. The results were analysed qualitatively and summarised in a taxonomy. Results: We create the first comprehensive, structured, yet extendable taxonomy of assets, containing 57 types of assets. Conclusions: The taxonomy serves as a foundation for identifying assets that are relevant for an organisation and enables the study of asset management and asset degradation concepts.