Integrated with software, applied intelligence is an essential enabler for science and the new economy. The combination creates new markets and new directions for a more reliable, flexible and robust society and empowers the exploration of our world in ever more depth. Software, on the other hand, often falls short of our expectations. Current software methodologies, tools, and techniques are still not sufficiently robust or reliable for the constantly changing and evolving market, and many promising approaches have proved to be no more than case-oriented methods that are not fully automated.

This book explores new trends and theories illuminating the direction of development in this field; development which will, we believe, lead to a transformation in the role of integration of software and science for tomorrow’s global information society. Discussing issues ranging from research practices, techniques and methodologies to the proposing and reporting of the solutions required by global business, it offers an opportunity for the software-science community to think about where we are today and where we are going.

The book aims to capture the essence of a new state-of-the-art in software science and its supporting technology, and to identify the challenges that such a technology will have to master. It contains extensively reviewed papers presented at the 22nd International Conference on New Trends in Intelligent Software Methodology, Tools, and Techniques, (SoMeT_23) held from 20–22 September 2023 in Naples, Italy, with the collaboration of University of Naples Federico II (http://www.impianti.unina.it/somet2023/).

SoMeT_23 is the 22nd round of the SoMeT conference, supported by the i-SOMET Incorporated Association, (www.i-somet.org) established by Prof. Hamido Fujita, and brought together researchers and practitioners to share their original research results and practical development experience in software science and related new technologies.

This volume forms part of the conference and the SoMeT series, providing an opportunity for the exchange of ideas and experiences in the field of software technology and opening up new avenues for software development, methodologies, tools, and techniques, especially with regard to intelligent software, the application of artificial intelligence techniques in software development, and tackling human interaction in the development process for better high-level interface. The emphasis is on human-centric software methodologies, end-user development techniques, and emotional reasoning for an optimally harmonized performance between the design tool and the user.

The “intelligent” aspect of SOMET emphasizes the need to explore the artificial-intelligence issues of software design for systems applications, for example, in disaster recovery and other systems supporting civil protection, as well as other applications in which human intelligence is a requirement in system engineering.

A major goal of this book was to assemble the work of scholars from the international research community to discuss and share their research experience of new software methodologies and techniques. One of the important issues addressed is the handling of cognitive issues in software development so as to adapt it to the user’s mental state. Tools and techniques related to this aspect form part of the contribution to this book. Other subjects raised at the conference include intelligent software design in software ontology and conceptual software design in practical, human-centric information-system applications.

The book also investigates other comparable theories, practices, and emerging technologies in software science from their computational foundations in terms of models, methodologies, and tools. This is essential for a comprehensive overview of information systems and research projects, and also for an assessment of their practical impact on real-world software problems. This represents another milestone in mastering the new challenges of software and its promising technology as addressed by the SoMeT conferences, and provides the reader with new insights, inspiration and concrete material with which to further the study of this new technology.

The book is a collection of carefully selected papers refereed by the reviewing committee (listed in the book). High-quality submissions were received, from which the best-quality revised articles have been carefully selected and published in this book. Referees from the program committee carefully reviewed all submissions, and 25 papers were selected on the basis of technical soundness, relevance, originality, significance, and clarity. They were then revised on the basis of the review reports before being considered by the SoMeT_23 international reviewing committee. It is worth stating that there were three or four reviewers for each paper published in this book.

This book is the result of a collective effort by many industrial partners and colleagues throughout the world. We would like to extend our gratitude for the support provided by the University of Naples Federico II, Italy and to all authors who contributed their invaluable support to this work. Most especially, we thank the program committee, reviewing committee, and all those who participated in the rigorous reviewing process and the lively discussion and evaluation meetings which led to the selection of the papers that appear here. Last but not least, we would also like to thank the Microsoft Conference Management Tool team for their expert guidance on the use of the Microsoft CMT System as a conference-support tool during all the phases of SoMeT_23.

The Editors