The high-level objective of this Perspectives Workshop is to bring together thought leaders from academia and industry to develop a comprehensive research agenda on the intersection of creativity, GenAI, and software development.

Creativity is a bedrock of software development: without it, innovation would stifle and the day-to-day problem solving that leads to new features, overcomes bugs, and helps tackle other challenges would be gravely hampered. Yet, whereas creativity in other disciplines such as arts, engineering, and architecture has been the subject of a vast amount of research, little is known about the nature, importance, and effect of creativity in software development.

The advent of GenAI has thrust the role of creativity in software development to the fore. Some envision a gentle evolution toward GenAI-driven tools that amplify the creative work of developers and make them more effective. Others see a radical near future in which GenAI usurps all rote work, with the sole job left for developers to creatively direct the tools to produce innovative software and features. Regardless, the importance of creativity will only rise – somewhat, significantly, or drastically. While a major portion of research, studies, and discussions in the literature and media have concentrated on the impact of GenAI on productivity, we argue that understanding the short-term, medium-term, and long-term impacts of and connections among creativity, GenAI, and software development warrants equal, if not greater, attention.

To discuss, anticipate, and proactively shape the future of creativity, GenAI, and software development, this Perspectives Workshop will bring together leading academics and practitioners to address a range of questions, including: what is the nature of creativity in software development; how might GenAI shape, enhance, and perturb software creativity; what does that mean for the resulting software products; which kinds of novel development tools may be needed; how might organizations and their teams adapt; and what unintended consequences may result?

To promote an interactive, fun, and indeed creative experience for workshop participants, we will leverage creativity techniques in structuring and organizing the discussions. While we envision a handful of invited presentations intended to educate the participants about important and needed terminology and knowledge in a particular area (e.g., theories of creativity, GenAI and its creative capabilities, non-software tools and GenAI), most of this Perspectives Workshop will be spent in active work for which we will use creativity techniques such as structured brainstorming, liberating structures, random word association, mind mapping, six thinking hats, role reversal, design critiques, and storyboarding. Desirable outcomes include:

1. Raise awareness of the important role of creativity in software development and the opportunities and pitfalls that may arise with the advent of GenAI.
2. Articulate different futures in terms of how GenAI may impact creativity in software development, as bracketed by other relevant factors such as value, productivity, and developer experience and wellbeing.
3. Use these futures to develop a comprehensive research agenda that helps shape the future of creativity, GenAI, and software development.
4. Ideate new GenAI driven tools that amplify creativity across different software development activities and tasks in positive ways while minimizing potential risks.
5. Promote an interdisciplinary community of researchers that cares about, understands, and drives how creativity and GenAI will shape future software development.

Creative Commons BY 4.0

Rafael Prikladnicki, Daniel Russo, Margaret-Anne Storey, and André van der Hoek