Laying the foundation for smart contract development: an integrated engineering process model

Christian Sillaber, Bernhard Waltl, Horst Treiblmaier (), Ulrich Gallersdörfer and Michael Felderer ()
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Christian Sillaber: University of Innsbruck
Bernhard Waltl: TU Munich
Horst Treiblmaier: MODUL University Vienna
Ulrich Gallersdörfer: TU Munich
Michael Felderer: University of Innsbruck

Information Systems and e-Business Management, 2021, vol. 19, issue 3, No 5, 863-882

Abstract: Abstract Smart contracts are seen as the major building blocks for future autonomous blockchain- and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)-based applications. Engineering such contracts for trustless, append-only, and decentralized digital ledgers allows mutually distrustful parties to transform legal requirements into immutable and formalized rules. Previous experience shows this to be a challenging task due to demanding socio-technical ecosystems and the specificities of decentralized ledger technology. In this paper, we therefore develop an integrated process model for engineering DLT-based smart contracts that accounts for the specificities of DLT. This model was iteratively refined with the support of industry experts. The model explicitly accounts for the immutability of the trustless, append-only, and decentralized DLT ecosystem, and thereby overcomes certain limitations of traditional software engineering process models. More specifically, it consists of five successive and closely intertwined phases: conceptualization, implementation, approval, execution, and finalization. For each phase, the respective activities, roles, and artifacts are identified and discussed in detail. Applying such a model when engineering smart contracts will help software engineers and developers to better understand and streamline the engineering process of DLTs in general and blockchain in particular. Furthermore, this model serves as a generic framework which will support application development in all fields in which DLT can be applied.

Keywords: Smart contract; Development process model; Software engineering; Blockchain; Distributed ledger technology; Survey; Design science; Trustless append-only decentralized digital ledgers (TADDL) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/s10257-020-00465-5

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