This reporitory contains the material of SAF-Tooolkit, a set of instruments to design the network of sustainability-quality concerns at the software architecture level, and define and operationalize them.

The SAF-Toolkit was developed at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. It entails the following instruments:

1. Decision Map (DM) visual notation (library to be used in the Diagrams.net tool): diagram framing and illustrating the (software architecture) sustainability-relevant design- and quality concerns and their related dependencies;
2. Checklist: reflective questions to help defining the elements of a DM; this include the Decision Graph, which helps the classification of concerns in the sustainability dimensions and level of impact;
3. Dependency Matrix'es (DMatrix) template: helps completing and complementing the own DM for the most relevant sustainability dimensions; identifying missing sustainability-quality concerns; and identifying missing dependencies. It includes: (i) instructions for use and extension; DMatrix of dependencies between SQ concerns (ii) in the Technical-Social dimensions; (iii) in the Technical-Environmental dimensions; and (iv) in the Technical-Economic dimensions (version 2022-04);
4. Sustainability-Quality (SQ) Model template: for each SQ concern (aka attribute aka characteristic), it captures consolidated definitions and the metrics/KPIs to operationalize them. It includes: (i) the template to define the own SQ model; and (ii) the SQ Model (version 1.1 dated 2022-04) created from past projects and the ISO/IEC 25010-2011 standard.
5. Key Performance Indicator (KPI) template: to establish and define the metrics and measures for the QAs within the SQ Model systematically, we aim to incorporate a KPI Model. It includes: (i) the KPI model as template for crafting own KPIs derived from the SQ model; and (ii) a practical KPI checklist for evaluating their soundness.

High-level overview of all involved instruments and their relation. Instruments inside the dashed-blue rectangle are available in its current version; instruments outside are plan of our future vision and have yet to be integrated.

The instruments managed by the SAF Toolkit are visualized below containing a detailed-level overview of all involved instruments, their elements and relation. Colored elements are available in its current version; Transparent elements are plan of our future vision and have yet to be integrated.

If SAF Toolkit is helping your research or practice, please credit our work by citing it as follows, thanks!

@MISC{SAF_Toolkit_2024,
  title="{The Sustainability Assessment Framework (SAF) Toolkit: Instruments to help Sustainability-driven Software Architecture Design Decision Making}",
  author={Patricia Lago and Nelly Condori-Fernandez},
  month=apr,
  year={2024},
  url={https://github.com/S2-group/SAF-Toolkit},
  institution="S2 Group, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam"
}

The material included in this repository is based on the following publications:

Lago, P. (2019). Architecture design decision maps for software sustainability. In IEEE/ACM 41st International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS) (pp. 61-64). [8797634]. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE-SEIS.2019.00015

Condori-Fernandez, N., & Lago, P. (2018). Characterizing the contribution of quality requirements to software sustainability. Journal of Systems and Software, 137, 289-305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2017.12.005

Condori-Fernandez, N., & Lago, P. (2019). Towards a software sustainability-quality model: Insights from a multi-case study. In M. Kolp, J. Vanderdonckt, M. Snoeck, & Y. Wautelet (Eds.), 13th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS). IEEE Computer Society. https://doi.org/10.1109/RCIS.2019.8877084

Condori Fernandez, O. N., & Lago, P. (2019). Using Participatory Technical-action-research to validate a Software Sustainability Model. In A. Wolff (Ed.), ICT4S 2019 - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on ICT for Sustainability. Lappeenranta, Finland, June 10-14, 2019. CEUR-WS. http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2382/ICT4S2019_paper_1.pdf

Condori-Fernandez, N., Lago, P., Luaces, M. R., & Places, Á. S. (2020). An action research for improving the sustainability assessment framework instruments. Journal of Sustainability (Switzerland), 12(4). [1682]. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12041682

Fatima, I., Funke, M., Lago, P. Providing Guidance to Software Practitioners: A Framework for Creating KPIs. TechRxiv. February 13, 2024. https://doi.org/10.36227/techrxiv.24057882.v2

Case studies experimenting with the SAF Toolkit:

Espana, S., Lago, P. Software Sustainability Assessment (SoSA) exercise report. Technical report, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (May 2016). https://goo.gl/d9FYi9

Verdecchia, R., Procaccianti, G., Malavolta, I., Lago, P., Koedijk, J. Estimating Energy Impact of Software Releases and Deployment Strategies: The KPMG Case Study. In: International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM), pp.257–266. Springer, Ljubljana, Slovenia (2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/ESEM.2017.39

Niggebrugge, T., Vos, S., Lago, P.: The Sustainability of Mobility as a Service Solutions Evaluated through the Software Sustainability Assessment Method. Technical report, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (January 2018)

Lago, P. Architecture Design Decision Maps for Software Sustainability. In: 41st International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS). ICSE, pp. 61–64. IEEE/ACM, Montr´eal, Canada (2019). http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICSE-SEIS.2019.00015

Vos, S., Schaefers, H., Bon, A., Lago, P. Sustainability and Ethics by Design: On the development of digital platforms in low-resource environments. Technical report, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (December 2020). https://research.vu.nl/files/137357217/ICT4FoodSec1.pdf

Vos, S., Schaefers, H., Lago, P., Bon, A. Towards Sustainability and Equality in Digital Development. In: The Future of Digital Work: The Challenge of Inequality. IFIP AICT, vol. 601. Springer, Cham (2020). http://link.springer.com.vu-nl.idm.oclc.org/978-3-030-64697-4

Bischoff, Y., Wiel, R., Hooff, B., Lago, P. A taxonomy about information systems complexity and sustainability. In: Advances and New Trends in Environmental Informatics, pp.17–33. Springer, Cham (2022)

Lago, P., Verdecchia, R., Condori-Fernandez, N., Rahmadian, E., Sturm, J., Nijnanten, T., Bosma, R., Debuysscher, C., Ricardo, P. Designing for Sustainability: Lessons Learned from Four Industrial Projects. In: Advances and New Trends in Environmental Informatics, pp. 3–18. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61969-51

Funke, M., Lago, P., Verdecchia, R.: Variability Features: Extending Sustainability Decision Maps via an Industrial Case Study. In: 2023 IEEE 20th International Conference on Software Architecture Companion (ICSA-C), pp. 1–7. IEEE, L’Aquila, Italy (2023)

This is the root directory of the repository. The directory is structured as follows:

SAF Toolkit TODO
 .
 |        
 |--- SAF Toolkit [2022-04]/            Previous version of the SAF Toolkit, including its instruments                              
    |                         
    |--- documentation/                    SAF Toolkit models as UML diagrams; files used for the README
    |
    |--- tutorials/                        Tutorials on how to use the SAF Toolkit
 |--- SAF Toolkit [2024-02]/            Current version of the SAF Toolkit, including its instruments                              
    |                         
    |--- documentation/                    SAF Toolkit models as UML diagrams; files used for the README
    |
    |--- tutorials/                        Tutorials on how to use the SAF Toolkit