A market-based approach to software evolution

Software correctness has bedeviled the field of computer science since its inception. Software complexity has increased far more quickly than our ability to control it, reaching sizes that are many orders of magnitude beyond the reach of formal or automated verification techniques. We propose a new paradigm for evaluating “correctness” based on a rich market ecosystem in which coalitions of users bid for features and fixes. Developers, testers, bug reporters, and analysts share in the rewards for responding to those bids. In fact, we suggest that the entire software development process can be driven by a disintermediated market-based mechanism driven by the desires of users and the capabilities of developers. ract, unspecifiable, and unknowable notion of absolute correctness is then replaced by quantifiable notions of correctness demand (the sum of bids for bugs) and correctness potential (the sum of the available profit for fixing those bugs). We then sketch the components...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: OOPSLA
• Authors: David F. Bacon, Yiling Chen, David C. Parkes, Malvika Rao
• Keywords: Correctness, Correctness Demand, OOPSLA 2009, Security Privacy, Software Correctness