Journals Proceedings

Abstract

The survival of a software product for a long term is a challenging issue. Software doesn’t die but it becomes obsolete. The aim of this paper is to propose a design pattern that could help maintaining the sustainability of software products. The proposed pattern could be used in the architectural engineering phase of developing an online social network system to help maintaining its sustainability. We built our work based on an agreed upon definition of software sustainability from the software engineering perspective, we discussed the main factors that lead to maintain a sustainable software product, and introduced the risks that might lead to software death. Finally, a planning phase was introduced to help analyzing the need for a sustainable software and evaluating it economically. It is highly recommended to use the proposed pattern and to consider the proposed factors due to their comprehensiveness and flexibility.