Abstract
Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is a domain with great potential for
economic and societal impact. But market uptake of such solutions is so far limited
because of market, standards and technology uncertainty. The businesses that will
prevail are those that are cost effective. To support cost effective development of
AAL solutions, domain specific open software ecosystems are being established.
We developed a survey to investigate key technology success factors for such
ecosystems. The survey was sent to 60 developers from a representative selection
AAL development projects. 18 responded. Following a qualitative data analysis we
found several key factors and features that must be in place to facilitate the success
of such ecosystems. We found that given the nature of the AAL domain,
characterised by divergent users, software and hardware, developers are seeking
for support in three main areas. First, they want the artefacts available in the
ecosystem to support relevant standards in the domain. Second, support for tracing
artefacts available in the ecosystem to requirements (domain-fit) is needed. Third,
they want support for developing, testing and emulating for complex usersoftware-
hardware workflows in this distributed environment. The main obstacle
that will scare away developers from the ecosystems is lack of documentation of
the artefacts in the ecosystem. Second, not enough decoupled components, and
finally, lack of proper search features. Finally, in order to be able to learn to use
the artefacts, examples, scenarios and API documentation is necessary.
economic and societal impact. But market uptake of such solutions is so far limited
because of market, standards and technology uncertainty. The businesses that will
prevail are those that are cost effective. To support cost effective development of
AAL solutions, domain specific open software ecosystems are being established.
We developed a survey to investigate key technology success factors for such
ecosystems. The survey was sent to 60 developers from a representative selection
AAL development projects. 18 responded. Following a qualitative data analysis we
found several key factors and features that must be in place to facilitate the success
of such ecosystems. We found that given the nature of the AAL domain,
characterised by divergent users, software and hardware, developers are seeking
for support in three main areas. First, they want the artefacts available in the
ecosystem to support relevant standards in the domain. Second, support for tracing
artefacts available in the ecosystem to requirements (domain-fit) is needed. Third,
they want support for developing, testing and emulating for complex usersoftware-
hardware workflows in this distributed environment. The main obstacle
that will scare away developers from the ecosystems is lack of documentation of
the artefacts in the ecosystem. Second, not enough decoupled components, and
finally, lack of proper search features. Finally, in order to be able to learn to use
the artefacts, examples, scenarios and API documentation is necessary.