Abstract Quantum computing (QC) hinged upon the bedrock principles of quantum theory and holds promise for reforming a large number of industries. The researcher in this area aims to deliver a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the art and future trajectories of QC. The authors have discovered that most academic studies have concentrated upon dissecting specific aspects of QC. This discernment underscores the exigency of identifying challenges that might impede the seamless integration of QC within the software industry. Moreover, it becomes crucial to ascertain the panoply of solutions/practices required to overcome these barriers. A comprehensive multi‐vocal literature review was performed and culled a total of 49 academic papers for data extraction. A total of 13 challenges encountered by organisations were identified during the adoption of QC. Subsequently, these challenges were examined deeply and determined that five of them are the most critical, these are ‘Lack of quantum specific algorithms, dev and testing methodologies’, ‘Difficult compilation and debugging’, ‘Lack of development tools and technology’, ‘Lack of development guidelines & Quality Assurance Standards’ and ‘Lack of professional expert’, together founding over 30% of occurrences. These challenges from various perspectives were evaluated, including time frame, methodology, geographical region and publication platform. To address these barriers and implement the QC in software industry effectively, a total of 53 practices/solutions. This research aims to share valuable knowledge to simplify and amplify quantum application development.
Abstract Quantum computing (QC) hinged upon the bedrock principles of quantum theory and holds promise for reforming a large number of industries. The researcher in this area aims to deliver a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the art and future trajectories of QC. The authors have discovered that most academic studies have concentrated upon dissecting specific aspects of QC. This discernment underscores the exigency of identifying challenges that might impede the seamless integration of QC within the software industry. Moreover, it becomes crucial to ascertain the panoply of solutions/practices required to overcome these barriers. A comprehensive multi‐vocal literature review was performed and culled a total of 49 academic papers for data extraction. A total of 13 challenges encountered by organisations were identified during the adoption of QC. Subsequently, these challenges were examined deeply and determined that five of them are the most critical, these are ‘Lack of quantum specific algorithms, dev and testing methodologies’, ‘Difficult compilation and debugging’, ‘Lack of development tools and technology’, ‘Lack of development guidelines & Quality Assurance Standards’ and ‘Lack of professional expert’, together founding over 30% of occurrences. These challenges from various perspectives were evaluated, including time frame, methodology, geographical region and publication platform. To address these barriers and implement the QC in software industry effectively, a total of 53 practices/solutions. This research aims to share valuable knowledge to simplify and amplify quantum application development.
The current technology revolution has posed unexpected challenges for the software industry. In recent years, the field of quantum computing (QC) technologies has continued to grow in influence and maturity, and it is now poised to revolutionise software engineering. However, the evaluation and prioritisation of QC challenges in the software industry remain unexplored, relatively under-identified and fragmented. The purpose of this study is to identify, examine and prioritise the most critical challenges in the software industry by implementing a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP). First, to identify the key challenges, we conducted a systematic literature review by drawing data from the four relevant digital libraries and supplementing these efforts with a forward and backward snowballing search. Second, we followed the F-AHP approach to evaluate and rank the identified challenges, or barriers. The results show that the key barriers to QC adoption are the lack of technical expertise, information accuracy and organisational interest in adopting the new process. Another critical barrier is the lack of standards of secure communication techniques for implementing QC. By applying F-AHP, we identified institutional barriers as the highest and organisational barriers as the second highest global weight ranked categories among the main QC challenges facing the software industry. We observed that the highest-ranked local barriers facing the software technology industry are the lack of resources for design and initiative while the lack of organisational interest in adopting the new process is the most significant organisational barrier. Our findings, which entail implications for both academicians and practitioners, reveal the emergent nature of QC research and the increasing need for interdisciplinary research to address the identified challenges.
Context The current technology revolution has posed unexpected challenges for the software industry. In recent years, the field of quantum computing (QC) technologies has continued to grow in influence and maturity, and it is now poised to revolutionise software engineering. However, the evaluation and prioritisation of QC challenges in the software industry remain unexplored, relatively under-identified and fragmented. Objective The purpose of this study is to identify, examine and prioritise the most critical challenges in the software industry by implementing a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP). Method First, to identify the key challenges, we conducted a systematic literature review by drawing data from the four relevant digital libraries and supplementing these efforts with a forward and backward snowballing search. Second, we followed the F-AHP approach to evaluate and rank the identified challenges, or barriers. Results The results show that the key barriers to QC adoption are the lack of technical expertise, information accuracy and organisational interest in adopting the new process. Another critical barrier is the lack of standards of secure communication techniques for implementing QC. Conclusion By applying F-AHP, we identified institutional barriers as the highest and organisational barriers as the second highest global weight ranked categories among the main QC challenges facing the software industry. We observed that the highest-ranked local barriers facing the software technology industry are the lack of resources for design and initiative while the lack of organisational interest in adopting the new process is the most significant organisational barrier. Our findings, which entail implications for both academicians and practitioners, reveal the emergent nature of QC research and the increasing need for interdisciplinary research to address the identified challenges.
Abstract Quantum computing has emerged as a promising field with the potential to revolutionize information processing and storage. Understanding its current state and research trajectory is crucial. This study aims to map the current literature on quantum computing, to identify how quantum computing is being used in solving quantum software problems and improving quantum algorithms. Moreover, it examines evaluation parameters and the challenges faced in this field. A systematic mapping study was conducted using the SCOPUS database, including all papers up to December 2024. Relevant articles were selected based on inclusion criteria, and a content analysis was performed to categorize and synthesize the findings. Information was gathered from 33 primary studies. Findings show that quantum computing is mainly applied in machine learning and optimization, though classical methods still outperform it. IBM Quantum is the most used platform. Research focuses on algorithm efficiency, verification over validation, and resource optimization, but lacks standardized evaluation methods. Key limitations include hardware constraints, noise, and scalability, while challenges involve integration, error correction, and problem formulation. Quantum computing continues to face significant technological challenges, but current research lays the groundwork for future advances. More practical studies on real hardware and strategies to improve the implementation and performance of quantum algorithms are needed. Effective evaluation, verification, and validation of quantum solutions must be further investigated.
Abstract Quantum computing is an emerging field in which theoretical principles are being transformed into practical applications, largely due to the efforts of the developer community. In order to ensure that quantum software engineering continues to advance, it is vital to understand the experiences, challenges, and aspirations of developers. This chapter is a continuation of our previous work, which provided a comprehensive survey exploring the adoption patterns and common challenges in quantum software engineering. In addition to the survey, we conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with practitioners in the field to gain a deeper and more detailed understanding of their perspectives. Through the interviews and survey findings, we have gained nuanced insights into the motivations, hurdles, and outlook of developers toward the rapidly evolving quantum computing landscape. We describe the research methodology in detail, including the tools and techniques used, in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the research process. Furthermore, we present critical insights from both the survey and interviews, enriching the narrative with fresh perspectives obtained from the post-publication interviews. This chapter is a blend of academic investigation and real-world practitioner insights, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current state of quantum software engineering. By illuminating the path for future research and development in this dynamic field, we hope to guide the way toward continued progress and innovation.
Quantum computing represents one of the most transformative technological shifts in computational science since the advent of classical computing architectures. This systematic literature review (SLR) synthesizes 212 peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2024 to map the current landscape of quantum computing research as it intersects with software development practices, tools, frameworks, and methodologies. Following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, we searched six major academic databases and identified relevant literature through a rigorous multi-stage screening process. Our analysis reveals five dominant research themes: quantum algorithm development and software frameworks, quantum machine learning integration, quantum cryptography and security applications, quantum software testing and verification, and hybrid quantum-classical software architectures. We further document major challenges including hardware decoherence, limited qubit availability, the absence of mature quantum DevOps pipelines, and a critical shortage of quantum-competent software engineers. The review concludes with a structured research agenda identifying six high-priority gaps where future scholarly work is most urgently needed. This paper provides a foundational reference for software engineers, researchers, and technology strategists seeking to understand and navigate the rapidly evolving quantum software ecosystem.
Abstract Quantum computing (QC) is an emerging paradigm with the potential to offer significant computational advantage over conventional classical computing by exploiting quantum‐mechanical principles such as entanglement and superposition. It is anticipated that this computational advantage of QC will help to solve many complex and computationally intractable problems in several application domains such as drug design, data science, clean energy, finance, industrial chemical development, secure communications, and quantum chemistry. In recent years, tremendous progress in both quantum hardware development and quantum software/algorithm has brought QC much closer to reality. Indeed, the demonstration of quantum supremacy marks a significant milestone in the Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum (NISQ) era—the next logical step being the quantum advantage whereby quantum computers solve a real‐world problem much more efficiently than classical computing. As the quantum devices are expected to steadily scale up in the next few years, quantum decoherence and qubit interconnectivity are two of the major challenges to achieve quantum advantage in the NISQ era. QC is a highly topical and fast‐moving field of research with significant ongoing progress in all facets. A systematic review of the existing literature on QC will be invaluable to understand the state‐of‐the‐art of this emerging field and identify open challenges for the QC community to address in the coming years. This article presents a comprehensive review of QC literature and proposes taxonomy of QC. The proposed taxonomy is used to map various related studies to identify the research gaps. A detailed overview of quantum software tools and technologies, post‐quantum cryptography, and quantum computer hardware development captures the current state‐of‐the‐art in the respective areas. The article identifies and highlights various open challenges and promising future directions for research and innovation in QC.