A unifying framework to standardise the representation of diverse tactics of multiple national/international sustainability organisations

Abstract

Sustainability tactics are increasingly adopted by organizations to improve the sustainability of software systems. However, these tactics are often fragmented across diverse repositories, complicating knowledge sharing. This thesis presents a standardization framework that focuses on consistent representation rather than standardizing the tactics themselves. It includes a formal ontology, a conceptual UML model, a machine-readable schema, an ontology glossary, mapping rules, and transformation pipelines for both structured repositories and unstructured sources. Evaluated with three repositories, the framework effectively represents sustainability knowledge consistently. While expert feedback highlighted its clarity and practical utility, the manual effort required for structured repository integration remains a challenge, indicating a need for more automation. This work is a significant step toward standardising sustainability tactic representations and enhancing knowledge sharing. Future research should explore automated mapping techniques, validation mechanisms, and support for image-based sustainability knowledge.