A flexible approach to decentralized software evolution

Reducing the costs and risks associated with changing complex software systems has been a principal concern of software engineering research and development. One facet of this effort concerns decentralized software evolution (DSE), which, simply stated, enables third-parties to evolve a software application independent of the organization that originally developed it. Popular approaches to DSE include application programming interfaces or APIs, software plug-ins, and scripting languages. Application vendors employ DSE as a means of attracting additional users to their applications-and, consequentially, increasing their market share-since it opens up the possibility that a third-party modified version of the application would satisfy the needs of end-users unsatisfied with the original version. This benefits everyone involved: the original application vendor sells more product since customization constitutes use; third-party developers deliver a product in less time and with lower cost by reusing software as opposed to building it from scratch; and customers receive a higher quality product, customized to suit their needs, in less time and with lower cost. By increasing the opportunity for buying and customizing software instead of building it from scratch, DSE attacks Brook\´s "essential" difficulties of software development.