A Viable Paradigm of Software Automation: Iterative End-to-End Automated Software Development
Jia Li, Zhi Jin, Huangzhao Zhang, Kechi Zhang, Jiaru Qian, Tiankuo Zhao
TL;DR
The paper addresses the challenge of achieving end-to-end automated software development by integrating AI systems as collaborative partners rather than mere assistants. It proposes AutoSW, an analyze-plan-implement-deliver loop where humans specify intent and constraints and AI systems execute, validate, and deliver software. A lightweight GPT-5–powered prototype demonstrates AutoSW across four cases—game development, data-intensive management, personal assistant, and tax filing—highlighting architecture design, state management, multi-module coordination, and domain-specific reasoning. Findings support the viability of truly end-to-end automated development with traceability, software evolution, and end-to-end delivery, offering a path toward higher automation with preserved quality.
Abstract
Software development automation is a long-term goal in software engineering. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI), more and more researchers are exploring approaches to software automation. They view AI systems as tools or assistants in software development, still requiring significant human involvement. Another initiative is ``vibe coding'', where AI systems write and repeatedly revise most (or even all) of the code. We foresee these two development paths will converge towards the same destination: AI systems participate in throughout the software development lifecycle, expanding boundaries of full-stack software development. In this paper, we present a vision of an iterative end-to-end automated software development paradigm AutoSW. It operates in an analyze-plan-implement-deliver loop, where AI systems as human partners become first-class actors, translating human intentions expressed in natural language into executable software. We explore a lightweight prototype across the paradigm and initially execute various representative cases. The results indicate that AutoSW can successfully deliver executable software, providing a feasible direction for truly end-to-end automated software development.