Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly integrated into software applications, giving rise to a broad class of prompt-enabled systems, in which prompts serve as the primary 'programming' interface for guiding system behavior. Building on this trend, a new software paradigm, promptware, has emerged, which treats natural language prompts as first-class software artifacts for interacting with LLMs. Unlike traditional software, which relies on formal programming languages and deterministic runtime environments, promptware is based on ambiguous, unstructured, and context-dependent natural language and operates on LLMs as runtime environments, which are probabilistic and non-deterministic. These fundamental differences introduce unique challenges in prompt development. In practice, prompt development remains largely ad hoc and relies heavily on time-consuming trial-and-error, a challenge we term the promptware crisis. To address this, we propose promptware engineering, a new methodology that adapts established Software Engineering (SE) principles to prompt development. Drawing on decades of success in traditional SE, we envision a systematic framework encompassing prompt requirements engineering, design, implementation, testing, debugging, evolution, deployment, and monitoring. Our framework re-contextualizes emerging prompt-related challenges within the SE lifecycle, providing principled guidance beyond ad-hoc practices. Without the SE discipline, prompt development is likely to remain mired in trial-and-error. This paper outlines a comprehensive roadmap for promptware engineering, identifying key research directions and offering actionable insights to advance the development of prompt-enabled systems.

翻译：大型语言模型（LLMs）正日益融入软件应用，催生出广泛的提示驱动系统类别，其中提示作为指导系统行为的主要“编程”接口。基于这一趋势，一种新的软件范式——提示件（promptware）应运而生，它将自然语言提示视为与LLMs交互的一等软件制品。与传统软件依赖形式化编程语言和确定性运行时环境不同，提示件基于模糊、非结构化且上下文相关的自然语言，并以概率性、非确定性的LLMs作为运行时环境。这些根本性差异为提示开发带来了独特挑战。在实践中，提示开发在很大程度上仍处于临时性状态，严重依赖耗时的试错过程，我们称之为提示件危机。为解决这一问题，我们提出提示件工程（promptware engineering），这是一种将成熟的软件工程（SE）原则适配于提示开发的新方法。借鉴传统软件工程数十年的成功经验，我们设想一个系统化框架，涵盖提示需求工程、设计、实现、测试、调试、演化、部署与监控。该框架将新兴的提示相关挑战重新置于软件工程生命周期中进行情境化分析，提供超越临时实践的原则性指导。若无软件工程学科的支撑，提示开发很可能持续陷于试错困境。本文勾勒了提示件工程的全面路线图，指明关键研究方向并提供可操作的见解，以推动提示驱动系统的发展。