We argue that frameworks employed in architecting self-adaptive systems allow the system to exhibit creative behaviour, and that many of the existing self-adaptive systems operating in domains which are typically not associated with creativity are inherently creative. However, even the current state-of-the-art solutions do not fully exploit stronger forms of creative behaviour, which are required in complex environments, where the system constantly encounters fundamentally novel situations. To this end, software development necessitates a paradigm shift parallel to moving from procedural design methodology toward self-aware systems where the system adapts to its context at run time.

The Creative Systems Framework (CSF) formalises creativity as search through a space of concepts. As a formal account of Margaret Boden’s descriptive hierarchy of creativity, it is at the basis of multiple studies dealing with diverse aspects ofComputational Creativity (CC) systems. However, the CSF at present neither formalises action nor action selection during search, limiting its use in analysing creative processes. We extend the CSF by explicitly modelling these missing components in the search space traversal function. We furthermore integrate the distinction between a concept and an artefact, and provide stopping criteria for creative search. Our extension, the Creative Action Selection Framework (CASF), is informed by previous studies in CC and draws on concepts from Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). It allows us to de-scribe a creative system as an agent selecting actions based on the value, validity and novelty of concepts and artefacts. TheCASF brings more analytical depth for creative systems that can be modelled as utilising an action selection procedure.