Application of Blockchain for Trusted Coordination in Collaborative Software Development

Abstract

The coordination of developing various complex and large-scale projects using computers has been well established and is the so-called computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). Collaborative software development requires similar technologies and tools to handle the coordination among participating teams. Development of complex and large-scale software systems can be largely improved by effective collaboration among participating software development teams at both component and system levels, which depends on trusted coordination among the participating teams for sharing, processing, and managing information on various participating teams, which are often operating in a distributed environment, even if they are in the same organization. Existing approaches for coordination in collaborative software development are based on using centralized repository and tools to store, process, and retrieve information on participating software development teams during the development. These approaches use centralized authority, have a single point of failure and restricted rights to own data and software. Although there are approaches for collaborative software development using blockchain, they only verify blockchain transactions using customized agreement techniques, and do not address the coordination in collaborative software development. In this paper, it is shown how private blockchain is used to provide trusted coordination in collaborative software development using smart contracts. This is due to the properties of immutability, auditability, and transparency of the blockchain.