Dissertation:
Bridging Academic Software Sustainability Design with Corporate Business Planning

Software systems have become deeply intertwined with both our personal lives and our professional lives, blurring the demarcation between the colloquially referred ‘real world’ and ‘digital world’. Consequently, software systems wield unintended influences on nontechnical systems, encompassing the social, environmental, and economic dimensions. These three dimensions are commonly subsumed under the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), which serves as a conceptualisation of the term ‘sustainability’. Sustainability is not a passing trend but an elementary requirement for today’s and tomorrow’s society that confronts software practitioners with a new spectrum of tasks and responsibilities.

This dissertation is aimed at bridging the gap between academia and industry within software sustainability design. A comparison of these two sides reveals different levels of awareness regarding the impacts of software products and services, as well as a different level of theoretical knowledge and practical approaches to set and achieve sustainability goals. To fill this gap, particular reference was made to the preliminary work of the signatories of the Karlskrona Manifesto for Sustainability Design, who developed the Sustainability Awareness Framework (SusAF). The SusAF is a tool that supports software practitioners in identifying the multi-dimensional impacts of software so that they can be considered requirements during the design phase. Employing the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM), this dissertation extends the SusAF, tailoring it to the specific needs of software companies. Through a sequence of iterative case studies, an artefact named the Business-oriented Extension of the Sustainability Awareness Framework (BE-SusAF) has emerged.

The BE-SusAF contributes mainly through embedding four principles into industrial software design approaches, summarised as the four Is: 1) Interface positions for the orchestration of the artefact, 2) Integration of external stakeholders in the requirements elicitation process, 3) Implementation of the SusAF results within business design models, and 4) Incorporation of organisational conditions. While the artefact enables software companies to meet sustainability challenges, the research around it contributes in general to the transfer from academia to industry within software sustainability, a nexus that is gaining significance due to the progressing digital transformation.

Artefact:
The Business-Oriented Extension of the Sustainability Awareness Framework (BE-SusAF)

I Preparation

  • Selection of an employee in an interface function for planning, managing, and following up the artefact. This employee could be someone in a management-oriented role, for example, the IT product manager or product owner.
  • Participatory approach involving a diverse range of external stakeholders: To achieve these objectives, a preliminary stakeholder analysis is necessary. During the workshop, it is crucial to ensure the inclusivity of stakeholders and address their diverse backgrounds and motivations. Collaborating with research institutions is highly recommended, as they possess expertise in recruiting test participants and uphold objectivity in accordance with the principles of scientific rigour.

II Workshop

  • Time frame: Consideration of time frame is important, as revealed in our surveys. Ideally, two working days should be planned for the workshop part of the artefact (i.e. excluding preparation and follow-up): Eight hours designated for external stakeholders (presentation, VPC, SusAF, and another four hours designated for in-house stakeholders with the TL-BMC.
  • Introductory presentation: An introductory presentation is recommended to expand the stakeholders’ level of knowledge and thus eliminate fundamental knowledge gaps. In the preparatory phase, stakeholders can also be provided with introductory material to inform them in advance.
  • Value Proposition Canvas (VPC): The potential customer or user occupies a special position within the stakeholder ensemble. The workshop should utilise the VPC (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010), as joins and visualises both the customer side (needs, tasks, challenges, wishes, etc.) and the product side (features, characteristics, functions, etc.).
  • Sustainability Awareness Framework (SusAF): The work on the SusAF is the core of the artefact.
  • Traffic Light Business Model Canvas (TL-BMC): After the functionality (within the VPC) and the requirements (within the SusAF) of the software have been gathered, aspects from business modelling should be utilised. Here, the Business Model Canvas (BMC), which gathers the nine key factors of the BMC and relates them to each other, was a suitable approach (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010). The BMC has been modified so that stakeholders divide it into three levels: green – sustainable, yellow – appropriate, and red – unsustainable. At this point, the distribution to the sustainability levels is assigned by the stakeholders themselves during the discussion. The extended tool is reminiscent of traffic lights in road traffic, hence the name ‘Traffic Light Business Model Canvas’.

Value Proposition Canvas (VPC)

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Sustainability Awareness Framework (SusAF)

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Traffic Light Business Model Canvas (TL-BMC)

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III Follow-up

  • Funding research: In the follow-up phase, the integration of public funding emerges as a valuable instrument for incorporating sustainability considerations. Public funding can contribute to enhancing the integration of sustainability aspects into the business plan through various means, such as financial support, staff training initiatives, and collaborations with research institutions. Notably, funding opportunities are accessible to small, medium-sized, and large software companies worldwide, spanning across countries on all continents.
  • Transfer to the business and financial plan: The TL-BMC results provide guidance for incorporation into the final software business and financial plan. The consideration of economic efficiency shows that it should probably prove difficult or impossible to implement only the aspects at the green level. Rather, prioritisation should be based on stakeholders.

“Four Is”:
The fundamental principles

  • Interface position for the orchestration of the artefact (e.g. IT product managers) are suitable for the preparation, implementation, and follow-up of the SusAF as they (in contrast to the more technology-focused SEs) apply interdisciplinary knowhow in their function
  • Integration of external stakeholders in the requirements elicitation process in the workshop sessions through participatory design, enabling the consideration of sustainability-related content requirements and the identification of priorities.
  • Implementation of the SusAF results within business design models, facilitating the implementation of sustainability requirements within the business and financial plans of software companies.
  • Incorporation of organisational conditions within software companies, such as assigning an interface role, such as the IT product manager, to orchestrate the artefact, acknowledging time constraints as a limiting factor in each step of the artefact, and integrating funding opportunities.
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