worked on by: Helia Dadkhah

Introduction

Agentic engineering—the use of autonomous or semi-autonomous agents in software development—is an emerging trend in contemporary software engineering research and raises several open questions. This thesis aims to critically examine the term itself and to conduct an exploratory investigation based on practitioner interviews and online discussions. The study seeks to contribute in two main ways:
• by evaluating and clarifying the existing terminology with greater conceptual rigor, and
• by exploring the concept in depth to provide a more solid foundation for future research.

The purpose of this work is not to offer practical guidance on how to use agents effectively. Given the rapidly accelerating capabilities of agentic systems, such recommendations would likely become obsolete quickly.

Methodology

Because the field is still in its early stages and lacks established theoretical frameworks, this study employs a Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM). This approach allows theoretical insights to emerge directly from empirical data and is particularly appropriate for exploratory research.

The data for this study consist of publicly available sources, including blog posts by practitioners and a publicly accessible video of a recording session that could be considered as involving the use of agents in software development.