Why the Virtual Nature of Software Makes It Ideal for Search Based Optimization

This paper provides a motivation for the application of search based optimization to Software Engineering, an area that has come to be known as Search Based Software Engineering (SBSE). SBSE techniques have already been applied to many problems throughout the Software Engineering lifecycle, with new application domains emerging on a regular basis. The approach is very generic and therefore finds wide application in Software Engineering. It facilitates automated and semi-automated solutions in situations typified by large complex problem spaces with multiple competing and conflicting objectives. Previous work has already discussed, in some detail, the advantages of the SBSE approach for Software Engineering. This paper summarises previous work and goes further, by arguing that Software Engineering provides the ideal set of application problems for which optimization algorithms are supremely well suited.