Designing LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems for Software Engineering Tasks: Quality Attributes, Design Patterns and Rationale

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Main Authors: Cai, Yangxiao, Li, Ruiyin, Liang, Peng, Shahin, Mojtaba, Li, Zengyang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Cai, Yangxiao
Li, Ruiyin
Liang, Peng
Shahin, Mojtaba
Li, Zengyang
author_facet Cai, Yangxiao
Li, Ruiyin
Liang, Peng
Shahin, Mojtaba
Li, Zengyang
contents As the complexity of Software Engineering (SE) tasks continues to escalate, Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) have emerged as a focal point of research and practice due to their autonomy and scalability. Furthermore, through leveraging the reasoning and planning capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs), the application of LLM-based MASs in the field of SE is garnering increasing attention. However, there is no dedicated study that systematically explores the design of LLM-based MASs, including the Quality Attributes (QAs) on which designers mainly focus, the design patterns used by designers, and the rationale guiding the design of LLM-based MASs for SE tasks. To this end, we conducted a study to identify the QAs that LLM-based MASs for SE tasks focus on, the design patterns used in the MASs, and the design rationale for the MASs. We collected 94 papers on LLM-based MASs for SE tasks as the source. Our study shows that: (1) Code Generation is the most common SE task solved by LLM-based MASs among ten identified SE tasks, (2) Functional Suitability is the QA on which designers of LLM-based MASs pay the most attention, (3) Role-Based Cooperation is the design pattern most frequently employed among 16 patterns used to construct LLM-based MASs, and (4) Improving the Quality of Generated Code is the most common rationale behind the design of LLM-based MASs. Based on the study results, we presented the implications for the design of LLM-based MASs to support SE tasks.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_08475
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Designing LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems for Software Engineering Tasks: Quality Attributes, Design Patterns and Rationale
Cai, Yangxiao
Li, Ruiyin
Liang, Peng
Shahin, Mojtaba
Li, Zengyang
Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
As the complexity of Software Engineering (SE) tasks continues to escalate, Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) have emerged as a focal point of research and practice due to their autonomy and scalability. Furthermore, through leveraging the reasoning and planning capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs), the application of LLM-based MASs in the field of SE is garnering increasing attention. However, there is no dedicated study that systematically explores the design of LLM-based MASs, including the Quality Attributes (QAs) on which designers mainly focus, the design patterns used by designers, and the rationale guiding the design of LLM-based MASs for SE tasks. To this end, we conducted a study to identify the QAs that LLM-based MASs for SE tasks focus on, the design patterns used in the MASs, and the design rationale for the MASs. We collected 94 papers on LLM-based MASs for SE tasks as the source. Our study shows that: (1) Code Generation is the most common SE task solved by LLM-based MASs among ten identified SE tasks, (2) Functional Suitability is the QA on which designers of LLM-based MASs pay the most attention, (3) Role-Based Cooperation is the design pattern most frequently employed among 16 patterns used to construct LLM-based MASs, and (4) Improving the Quality of Generated Code is the most common rationale behind the design of LLM-based MASs. Based on the study results, we presented the implications for the design of LLM-based MASs to support SE tasks.
title Designing LLM-based Multi-Agent Systems for Software Engineering Tasks: Quality Attributes, Design Patterns and Rationale
topic Software Engineering
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.08475