Systemic maturity model and Brazilian public software

This work presents a case of an innovative Brazilian experience of use of free software in public administration as an emergent ecosystem, and the attempt to establish a quality framework for that. At the beginning of the century, Brazilian policy makers were concerned with the limitations of the Free Software Model of Production (FSMP) to provide software to public administration. Issues such as installation and operational support, quality of software (users interfaces, manuals) and bugs were not effectively solved by the FSPM alone. They then shaped the Brazilian Public Software, which is based on code opening (FSPM), but includes some additional duties to the entity that makes the software available. To support and to make the concept operational and institutional, an environment was formed and so a virtual ambience named Brazilian Public Software Portal (BPSP) began to exist. Since their beginning in the end of 2006, the BPSP1 has increased its number of associates to 84,000 users, and today it has 40 software solutions available, in many technological areas: geo-processing, health, public town management (sanitation, hospitals management, data management, etc). Even software solutions originated from private entities that had public interest as textual database and web application server ambience. The solutions are used not only by governmental agencies but also by small and medium-sized companies and other kinds of organizations. Other related interest groups emerged inside the BPS: 4CMBr, driven to municipalities; Virtual Market focused on services; 5CQualiBr devoted to the quality of the software in a large sense and to the ecosystem sustainability. Quality and quality assurance are a challenge in this kind of ecosystem.