Summary of the 2nd Natural Language-based Software Engineering Workshop (NLBSE 2023)

Abstract

Natural language processing (NLP) involves the automated anal- ysis and manipulation of human language. This includes algo- rithms that can analyze text created by humans and algorithms that can generate text that appears natural. Nowadays, NLP methods are becoming increasingly prevalent to enhance various aspects of software development. Indeed, throughout the software development lifecycle, numerous natural language artifacts are produced. Therefore, the existence of NLP-based approaches and tools has opened up possibilities for improving the e ectiveness and productivity of software engineers, processes, and products. The second edition of the Natural Language-Based Software Engi- neering Workshop (NLBSE) took place in 2023 alongside the 45th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2023), where the research community engaged in discussions about these approaches. This event brought together researchers and practi- tioners from the elds of NLP and software engineering to ex- change experiences, establish future research directions, and pro- mote the adoption of NLP techniques and tools in tackling chal- lenges speci c to software engineering. In this paper, we present a summary of the 2nd edition of the workshop, which comprised three full papers, four short/position papers, ve tool competi- tion/demonstration papers, two keynote talks (\Automated Bug Management: Re ections & the Road Ahead" by David Lo and \Trends and Opportunities in the Application of Large Language Models: the Quest for Maximum E ect" by Albert Ziegler), fol- lowed by extensive discussion among NLBSE participants. More details can be found at https://nlbse2023.github.io/index. html