Towards a Systemic Maturity Model for Public Software Ecosystems

Brazilian Public Software (BPS) is an innovative experience in public administration. It combines features of the free software production model with the concept of public goods and is delivered by a portal that links different people and interests. The evolution of BPS as a Public Software Ecosystem (PSE) can be best understood using Complex Thinking Theory (CTT). The papers describes how methodologies based on System Thinking, were used to obtain empirical evidence that the BPS ecosystem evolves in learning cycles and concludes that this could result in a systemic maturity model for BPS, provide a reference for understanding and improving BPS and others PSE. This maturity model has been developed using an analogy with ISO/IEC 15504 (SPICE) references for capability maturity models. The System Thinking however indicated different path for maturity other than the one based on capability. This finding is consistent with the current evolution of SPICE (ISO/IEC 33000 series) towards other path for maturity in addition to capability.