Blockchain platforms and languages for writing smart contracts are becoming increasingly popular. However, smart contracts and blockchain applications are developed through non-standard software life-cycles, in which, for instance, delivered applications can hardly be updated or bugs resolved by releasing a new version of the software. Therefore, this systematic literature review oriented to software engineering aims at highlighting current problems and possible solutions concerning smart contracts and blockchain applications development. In this paper, we analyze 96 articles (written from 2016 to 2020) presenting solutions to tackle software engineering-specific challenges related to the development, test, and security assessment of blockchain-oriented software. In particular, we review papers (that appeared in international journals and conferences) relating to six specific topics: smart contract testing, smart contract code analysis, smart contract metrics, smart contract security, Dapp performance, and blockchain applications. Beyond the systematic review of the techniques, tools, and approaches that have been proposed in the literature to address the issues posed by the development of blockchain-based software, for each of the six aforementioned topics, we identify open challenges that require further research.

用于编写智能合约的区块链平台和语言正变得越来越流行。但是，智能合约和区块链应用程序是通过非标准的软件生命周期开发的，例如，交付的应用程序几乎无法通过发布新版本的软件来更新或解决错误。因此，这篇针对软件工程的系统文献综述旨在突出当前有关智能合约和区块链应用开发的问题以及可能的解决方案。在本文中，我们分析了96篇文章（撰写于2016年至2020年），提出了解决方案，以应对与面向区块链的软件的开发，测试和安全评估相关的软件工程特定挑战。特别是，我们将审查与六个特定主题相关的论文（在国际期刊和会议上发表）：智能合约测试，智能合约代码分析，智能合约指标，智能合约安全性，Dapp性能和区块链应用。除了对文献中针对解决基于区块链的软件开发所带来的问题而提出的技术，工具和方法进行系统的审查之外，对于上述六个主题中的每一个，我们还确定了需要进一步研究的开放挑战。