Towards Process Centered Architecting for Quantum Software Systems

Abstract

Quantum Software Engineering (QSE) is a recent trend -focused on unifying the principles of quantum mechanics and practices of software engineering -to design, develop, validate, and evolve quantum age software systems and applications. Software architecture for quantum computing (a.k.a. quantum software architectures (QSA)) supports the design, development, and maintenance etc. phases of quantum software systems using architectural components and connectors. QSA can enable quantum software designers and developers to map the operations of Qubits to architectural components and connectors for implementing quantum software. This research aims to explore the role of QSAs by investigating (i) architectural process having architecting activities, and (ii) human roles that can exploit available tools to automate and customise architecturecentric implementation of quantum software. Results of this research can facilitate knowledge transfer, enabling researchers and practitioners, to address challenges of architecture-centric implementation of quantum software systems.

Towards Human-Bot Collaborative Software Architecting with ChatGPT

“…Architecture-centric approaches have proven to be useful in academic solutions as well as in industrial projects by lending architectural knowledge, such as patterns, styles, languages, and frameworks, to design and develop software effectively and efficiently [4]. To enable software designers and architects with a systematic and incremental design of software architectures, there is a need for architecting process -also referred to as the process for architecting software [2], [3]. Architecting process can have a number of finegrained architecting activities that support a separation of architectural concerns in ACSE.…”

“…This section details the process of collaborative architecting demonstrated with a case study for scenario-based exemplification and illustrations (see Figure 3). The case study detailed in [15] aims to develop a software application named CampusBike that can be used via a browser or as an app, allowing campus visitors to 'register', 'view available bikes', 'reserve a bike', 'make payments', and 'view usage reports' etc. for eco-friendly mobility in and around the campus.…”

“…In recent years, ACSE has been applied to investigate the role of architecture in engineering complex and emergent classes of software (blockchains, quantum systems etc.) [3] and it has been proven as useful to systematise software development in an industrial context [2]. Despite its potential, ACSE entails a multitude of challenges including but not limited to mapping stakeholders' perspectives to architectural requirements, managing architectural drift, erosion, and technical debts, or lack of automation and architects' expertise in developing complex and emergent classes of software [1], [3].…”

“…[3] and it has been proven as useful to systematise software development in an industrial context [2]. Despite its potential, ACSE entails a multitude of challenges including but not limited to mapping stakeholders' perspectives to architectural requirements, managing architectural drift, erosion, and technical debts, or lack of automation and architects' expertise in developing complex and emergent classes of software [1], [3]. In such context, software engineers may enter a phase referred to as the 'lonesome architect' who requires non-intrusive support rooted in processes and tools to address the challenges of ACSE by reusing knowledge and exploiting decision support in the process [4].…”

“…Context and motivation: The process to architect software applications and services (a.k.a., 'architecting process') unifies a number of architecting activities that support an incremental, process-centric, and systematic approach to apply ACSE in software development endeavours [2], [3]. Empiricism remains fundamental to deriving and/or utilising architecting processes that can support activities, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation etc.…”