Enhancing software development processes with artificial intelligence

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the most revolutionary technologies since the internet. While many fields are affected, the field of software development is experiencing a rather transformative impact. With the rise of AI, organizations are presented with a new challenge: adopting artificial intelligence as a part of their software development workflow.

However, the discussion about adopting AI in software development often seems to gravitate towards the use of generative AI as part of the programming workflow, with the rest of the software development lifecycle left unnoticed.

In this thesis we set out to examine the enhancement of software development phases and tasks with AI-based solutions, while also identifying obstacles preventing the effective adoption of AI. We explore this topic with the viewpoint in mind that there likely exists undiscovered potential for enhancement where AI utilization is not as apparent. To achieve this goal, we perform a systematic literature review and conduct interviews to gain insight from experts working in the field of software development. With their opinions and experiences in mind, we draw a holistic overview of AI utilization, and how it could be improved, in the entire software development lifecycle.