Diretivas para a avaliação da sustentabilidade em soluções computacionais

Abstract

Throughout human history the consumption of natural resources has increased rapidly. The great leap happens at the moment we are inserted, the Third Industrial Revolution or Information Revolution - now highlighted by gadgets - of all order, such as smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, among others. There is continuous production of hardware and software, with direct impacts on the environment, economy and society, which characterizes the tripod of sustainability. According to the World Commission on Environment, Sustainability and Development, sustainability is defined as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (Amsel et al., 2011). In computational solutions, the impacts of the processes and methods used to design, deploy, and maintain them for sustainability issues are not usually measured by common development practices. Considering this problem, implying a lack of concern for sustainability in computational solutions, it is necessary to consider the issues of this scope, seeking direction solutions as suggested by the first great challenge for the Human-Computer Interaction area in Brazil (GrandIHCBr) - "Future , Smart Cities and Sustainability" (Neris et al., 2012). From this scenario, this research seeks to provide guidelines that help the team involved in the project to evaluate aspects of sustainability in computational solutions. The work started from a survey of the literature and a consultation to the computer community in Brazil that allowed to perceive the state of the art and the tacit knowledge in the subject. The literature also supported the choice of a reference model that was instantiated with the participation of 5 systems analysts and 3 researchers in computing. 21 directives were formalized. The directives were then presented to an industry professional and a university professor in computing for appreciation. The results suggest that the proposed policies can be considered as guiding factors for the design of computational solutions.