Practical Sustainable Software Development in Architectural Flexibility for Energy Efficiency Using the Extended Agile Framework

Abstract

Many regular business operations are transforming into digital services, increasing advanced multi-platforms, rapid operational alignment, flexibility, and environmental impact through energy consumption, hardware waste, and technology investments. Flexible and sustainable system development models emphasizing energy efficiency can help innovate software development as digital servicing applications shift. This research is motivated by the need to improve energy consumption in early software design and development due to rising technological efficiency and sustainability demands. Although effective in iterative development and stakeholder engagement, traditional Agile methodologies often struggle with long-term sustainability and energy efficiency. Extended Agile, combining Agile, layered architecture, and aspect-oriented frameworks (ALAI), promises to improve system modularity, flexibility, maintainability, and sustainability. This study’s findings are not just theoretical, but also practically relevant, as they explore the energy efficiency of ALAI software development methodologies, using graduate admission information system services (GAISS) as an example. GAISS is a complex system that handles the entire process of graduate admissions, from application submission to final decision. The study quantifies the energy usage of a student-list webpage by analyzing Microsoft IIS server logs from February 2022 to May 2024. Directly applicable findings show that the GAISS based on the ALAI framework reduces energy consumption by 10.7914% compared to traditional Agile software developments. ALAI used 892.80 kWh versus Agile’s 1000.80 kWh during operations, saving energy. These findings demonstrate the benefits of integrating aspect-oriented frameworks and layering approaches into Agile methodologies, contributing to sustainable software development discourse. The study emphasizes the importance of energy-efficient frameworks such as ALAI to reduce software systems’ environmental impact and promote software development sustainability. The findings of this study, with their practical relevance, assist software developers and organizations in choosing software design and development methods that maximize operational efficiency and environmental sustainability.