Design of classical-quantum systems with UML

Abstract

Developers of the many promising quantum computing applications that currently exist are urging companies in many different sectors seriously consider integrating this new technology into their business. For these applications to function, not only are quantum computers required, but quantum software also. Accordingly, quantum software engineering has become an important research field, in that it attempts to apply or adapt existing methods and techniques (or propose new ones) for the analysis, design, coding, and testing of quantum software, as well as playing a key role in ensuring quality in large-scale productions. The design of quantum software nevertheless poses two main challenges: the modelling of software quantum elements must be done in high-level modelling languages; and the need to further develop so-called “hybrid information systems”, which combine quantum and classical software. To address these challenges, we first propose a quantum UML profile for analysing and designing hybrid information systems; we then demonstrate its applicability through various structural and behavioural diagrams such as use case, class, sequence, activity, and deployment. In comparison to certain other quantum domain-specific languages, this UML profile ensures compliance with a well-known international standard that is supported by many tools and is followed by an extensive community.