Engineering Self‐Adaptive Systems: A Short Tour in Seven Waves

A characteristic example of a self‐adaptive system is a cloud platform that monitors the varying load of client applications and automatically adjusts capacity to maintain steady performance at the lowest possible cost. This chapter focuses on how self‐adaptive systems are engineered. The engineering of self‐adaptive systems is structured into seven waves that have emerged over time. These waves put complementary aspects of research on engineering self‐adaptive systems into focus that synergistically have contributed to the current body of knowledge in the field. The waves are: automating tasks, architecture‐based adaptation, runtime models, requirements‐driven adaptation, guarantees under uncertainty, control‐based software adaptation, learning from experience. The chapter summarizes how the subsequent waves have triggered each other, contributing complementary knowledge on the engineering of self‐adaptive systems.