Toward Agentic Software Engineering Beyond Code: Framing Vision, Values, and Vocabulary
This work addresses the need for a structured framework to guide the emerging field of agentic SE, which is incremental in building on existing SE foundations.
This paper tackles the problem of defining agentic software engineering (SE) as a research area by proposing to expand its scope beyond code to include socio-technical concerns, recommending values and principles, and providing vocabulary guidance to establish strong foundations for the field.
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.