Defining and classifying software bots: A faceted taxonomy

Carlene Lebeuf, Alexey Zagalsky, Matthieu Foucault, Margaret Anne Storey

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

While bots have been around for many decades, recent technological advancements and the increasing adoption of language-based communication platforms have led to a surge of new software bots, which have become increasingly pervasive in our everyday lives. Although many novel bots are being designed and deployed, the terms used to describe them and their properties are vast, diverse, and often inconsistent. Even the concept of what is or is not a bot is unclear. This hinders our ability to study, understand, design, and classify bots. In this paper, we present a taxonomy of software bots, which focuses on the observable properties and behaviours of software bots, as well as the environments where bots are deployed and designed. We see this taxonomy as a focal point for a discussion in our community so that together we can deeply consider how to evaluate and understand existing bots, as well as how we may design more innovative and productive bots.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2019 IEEE/ACM 1st International Workshop on Bots in Software Engineering, BotSE 2019
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages1-6
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781728122625
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2019
Externally publishedYes
Event1st IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Bots in Software Engineering, BotSE 2019 - Montreal, Canada
Duration: 28 May 2019 → …

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2019 IEEE/ACM 1st International Workshop on Bots in Software Engineering, BotSE 2019

Conference

Conference1st IEEE/ACM International Workshop on Bots in Software Engineering, BotSE 2019
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityMontreal
Period28/05/19 → …

Keywords

  • Classification
  • Software bot
  • Software engineering
  • Taxonomy

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