Accepted author manuscript, 1.13 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND
Accepted author manuscript, 1.13 MB, PDF document
Available under license: CC BY-NC-ND
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - An exploration study on developing blockchain systems – the practitioners' perspective
AU - Aljedaani, Bakheet
AU - Ahmad, Aakash
AU - Fehmideh, Mahdi
AU - Ali Khan, Arif
AU - Shen, Jun
PY - 2025/6/27
Y1 - 2025/6/27
N2 - ContextBlockchain-based software (BBS) builds upon the foundational technologies of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, utilising decentralised, immutable ledgers, to support the development and operation of security-critical and transaction-intensive systems and services. In recent years, a number of research studies have investigated the strategic benefits and technical limitations of BBS that is central to the operations of a wide variety of systems ranging from cyber security, healthcare, education, and financial technologies. Despite an increasing interest both from academia and industry in BBS, there is a dearth of empirical evidence resulting in a lack of understanding about processes, methods, and techniques to enable a systematic development of this class of software systems.ObjectivesExisting research lacks a consolidated view, particularly empirically-driven guidelines based on published evidence and development practices. Therefore, our objective is to derive new or leverage existing development processes, patterns, and models to design, implement, and validate BBS systems.MethodTied to this knowledge gap, we conducted a two-phase research that unifies the findings of (i) a systematic literature review and (ii) practitioners’ survey to derive and validate the development process for BBS systems. First, we conducted a systematic literature review of 58 studies to derive a process comprising of 26 activities, to develop BBS systems. We than engaged 102 blockchain practitioners from, 35 countries across 6 continents to validate the BBS system development processes.ResultsOur results revealed a statistically significant difference (p-value < .001) in the importance ratings of 24 out of 26 BBS activities by our participants. The only two activities that were not statistically significant were incentive protocol design and granularity design. Our study also presented some of the activities that have been emphasised by our participants within the different development phases (i.e., Analysis Phase, Design Phase, Implementation Phase, Deployment Phase, and Execution and Maintenance Phase).ConclusionOur research is among the first to advance understanding on the aspect of development process for BBS and helps researchers and practitioners in their quests on challenges and recommendations associated with the development of BBS systems.
AB - ContextBlockchain-based software (BBS) builds upon the foundational technologies of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, utilising decentralised, immutable ledgers, to support the development and operation of security-critical and transaction-intensive systems and services. In recent years, a number of research studies have investigated the strategic benefits and technical limitations of BBS that is central to the operations of a wide variety of systems ranging from cyber security, healthcare, education, and financial technologies. Despite an increasing interest both from academia and industry in BBS, there is a dearth of empirical evidence resulting in a lack of understanding about processes, methods, and techniques to enable a systematic development of this class of software systems.ObjectivesExisting research lacks a consolidated view, particularly empirically-driven guidelines based on published evidence and development practices. Therefore, our objective is to derive new or leverage existing development processes, patterns, and models to design, implement, and validate BBS systems.MethodTied to this knowledge gap, we conducted a two-phase research that unifies the findings of (i) a systematic literature review and (ii) practitioners’ survey to derive and validate the development process for BBS systems. First, we conducted a systematic literature review of 58 studies to derive a process comprising of 26 activities, to develop BBS systems. We than engaged 102 blockchain practitioners from, 35 countries across 6 continents to validate the BBS system development processes.ResultsOur results revealed a statistically significant difference (p-value < .001) in the importance ratings of 24 out of 26 BBS activities by our participants. The only two activities that were not statistically significant were incentive protocol design and granularity design. Our study also presented some of the activities that have been emphasised by our participants within the different development phases (i.e., Analysis Phase, Design Phase, Implementation Phase, Deployment Phase, and Execution and Maintenance Phase).ConclusionOur research is among the first to advance understanding on the aspect of development process for BBS and helps researchers and practitioners in their quests on challenges and recommendations associated with the development of BBS systems.
U2 - 10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107825
DO - 10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107825
M3 - Journal article
VL - 186
SP - 1
EP - 23
JO - Information and Software Technology
JF - Information and Software Technology
SN - 0950-5849
M1 - 107825
ER -