Software Engineering Institute

In this white paper, the authors examine how decision makers, such as technical leads and program managers, can assess the fitness of large language models (LLMs) to address software engineering and acquisition needs. They introduce exemplar scenarios in software engineering and software acquisition, and they identify common archetypes. The authors also describe common concerns involving the use of LLMs and enumerate tactics for mitigating those concerns. Using these common concerns and tactics, the authors demonstrate how decision makers can assess the fitness of LLMs for their own use cases through two examples.