AQUA: an Agile Process to Develop Quantum Annealing Applications

TL;DR

AQUA introduces an agile, structured process tailored for developing quantum annealing applications, addressing challenges in QUBO problem solving through a systematic lifecycle validated on a real-world credit scoring case.

Contribution

This work develops and empirically validates a novel agile process specifically designed for QUBO/quantum annealing application development, combining industry and academic expertise.

Findings

Feasibility demonstrated on a real credit-scoring case

A structured four-stage development process is effective

Provides a systematic framework for QUBO/QA engineering

Abstract

Quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) is a field of operations research that is attracting growing interest due to the recent availability of quantum hardware targeted at solving QUBO problems. However, practical adoption is hindered by mathematical intricacy, hardware constraints, and a lack of sound software engineering processes for QUBO development. This work presents AQUA (Agile QUantum Annealing), an agile lifecycle for QUBO/QA development created through an industry-academia partnership between NetService S.p.A and the University of Cagliari. Using the Design Science Research (DSR) approach, AQUA customizes Scrum to the needs of QUBO/QA development, structuring work into four stages: initial assessment with formal modeling, prototype-driven algorithm selection, agile implementation, and deployment with ongoing maintenance, each gated by milestones. Validated on a real credit-scoring case, AQUA shows feasibility and offers an explicit, systematic QA engineering framework. Key contributions of our work are: a dedicated QUBO/QA software process, its creation and design using DSR approach, and its empirical validation on a simple yet real case study.