From Quantum Software Handcrafting to Quantum Software Engineering

Quantum Computing holds the potential to change our world. Following the quantum wave, software engineers have recognised the opportunity to establish a new discipline of Quantum Software Engineering. Despite the significant progress achieved, Quantum Computing's widespread adoption still faces critical hurdles. In this paper, we outline two of these challenges. (1) Quantum programming continues to be a complex art mastered by a select few experts. We suggest that the primary culprit can be pinpointed in the absence of high-level quantum software abstractions which forces developers to work with low-level quantum concepts and reason in terms of matrix multiplications. (2) The scarce collaboration among quantum software engineers resulted in a lack of platform and software interoperability. While a diversity of research proposals fuels scientific progress, it can hinder the development and adoption of innovative technologies, potentially fragmenting the collective efforts and confining them within isolated research groups. We believe that overcoming these issues is crucial for fostering innovation, advancing Quantum Software Engineering, and Quantum Computing as a whole.