Navigating the Socio-Technical Complexity Challenge in Quantum Software Ecosystems
Software Engineering
Summary
The authors developed a framework to help people choose and manage the different layers involved in quantum computing, like hardware and software. They look at these choices from both social and technical perspectives, identifying factors that make certain technologies more influential or restrictive. Their framework helps users make thoughtful decisions to keep systems flexible and adaptable. They also tested the framework with real examples to show how it works. This work aims to support both theory and practical guidance in the quickly changing world of quantum computing.
Authors
Ronja Heikkinen, Santiago Núñez-Corrales, Vlad Stirbu
Abstract
Quantum computing environments are composed of heterogeneous layers spanning hardware, software development kits, and applications. Practitioners curating these environments face a fragmented and rapidly evolving landscape with few principled guides for navigation. This paper presents a framework for evaluating quantum computing environment choices through a socio-technical lens, developed using Design Science Research methodology. Drawing on the quantum software engineering literature as well as organizational and socio-technical research, the framework introduces three analytical constructs: gravity wells and their properties, which characterize how certain technologies and structural conditions exert increasing pull on surrounding environment choices, and socio-technical desiderata, which articulate the normative goals against which those pulls can be evaluated. The framework supports practitioners in making deliberate, context-aware environment choices that preserve architectural flexibility and support the evolutionary development of the field. Demonstration and evaluation of the framework is conducted through exemplary cases. The contribution advances both the theory of quantum ecosystems and the practical guidance available to organizations and practitioners navigating the current, evolving field of quantum computing.