Toward Agentic Software Engineering Beyond Code: Framing Vision, Values, and Vocabulary
Rashina Hoda
TL;DR
The paper addresses how to frame agentic software engineering beyond mere code, proposing a holistic 'whole of process' vision anchored in SE foundations and evolving agentic frameworks. It introduces a comprehensive set of guiding values (CRAFT) and principles to balance technical innovation with human and socio-technical concerns, ethics-by-design, and sustainability. By emphasizing well-defined vocabulary and taxonomy, it aims to standardize discourse and facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration. The work serves as a call to action for empirical, longitudinal studies and industry engagement to solidify agentic SE foundations and enable deliberate, desirable adoption in practice.
Abstract
Agentic AI is poised to usher in a seismic paradigm shift in Software Engineering (SE). As technologists rush head-along to make agentic AI a reality, SE researchers are driven to establish agentic SE as a research area. While early visions of agentic SE are primarily focused on code-related activities, early empirical evidence calls for a consideration of a range of socio-technical concerns to make it work in practice. This paper contributes to the emerging community vision by: (a) recommending an expansion of its scope beyond code, toward a 'whole of process' vision, grounding it in SE foundations and evolution and emerging agentic SE frameworks, (b) proposing a preliminary set of values and principles to guide efforts, and (c) sharing guidance on designing/using well-defined vocabulary for agentic SE. It is hoped that these ideas will encourage community collaborations and steer the SE community towards laying strong foundations of agentic SE so its not only inevitable but also deliberate and desirable in the long run.