Mariela Inés Cortés

A Multiobjective Optimization Approach to the Software Release Planning with Undefined Number of Releases and Interdependent Requirements

In software development, release planning is a complex activity which involves several aspects related to which requirements are going to be developed in each release of the system. The planning must meet the customers’ needs and comply with existing constraints. This paper presents an approach based on multiobjective optimization for release planning. The approach tackles formulations when the number of releases is not known a priori and also when the stakeholders have a desired number of releases (target). The optimization model is based on stakeholders’ satisfaction, business value and risk management. Requirements interdependencies are also considered. In order to validate the approach, experiments are carried out and the results indicates the validity of the proposed approach.

MAS-ML 2.0: Supporting the modelling of multi-agent systems with different agent architectures

Abstract Multi-agent systems (MAS) involve a wide variety of agents that interact with each other to achieve their goals. Usually each agent has a particular internal architecture defining its main structure that gives support to the interaction among the entities of MAS. Many modelling languages have been proposed in recent years to represent the internal architectures of such agents, for instance the UML profiles. In particular, we highlight MAS-ML, an MAS modelling language that performs a conservative extension of UML while incorporating agent-related concepts to represent proactive agents. However, such languages fail to support the modelling of the heterogeneous architectures that can be used to develop the agents of an MAS. Even worse, little has been done to provide tools to help the systematic design of agents. This paper, therefore, aims to extend the MAS-ML metamodel and evolve its tool to support the modelling of not only proactive agents but also several other architectures described in the literature.

Rational Agents for the Test of Rational Agents

Intelligent agents are seen as a promising technology to deal with the development of complex systems. Aiming at improving the agent performance, the utility function is responsible for mapping a possible state ,or set of state, with a utility degree associated. Although there are some efforts to facilitate the development of agent based systems, little has been done to propose methods and techniques to test these systems. In this work, we propose the conception of an approach that uses rational agents who are able to test others rational agents. More specifically, in addition to the designer of the agent, the approach involves a tester agent, a monitoring agent and one or more agents for representing the task environment of the tested agent. The test result must indicate the performance of the agent and, especially, the goals that are not being met.

Entities: A framework based on naked objects for development of transient web transientes

The architectural Naked Objects Pattern is a promising approach for a rapid software development through productivity increase. Frameworks based on Naked Objects pattern were originally developed for the creation of sovereign posture applications, ie., where the user is treated as a problem solver. However much of the market applications are developed following a transient posture, where the user is treated as a follower of the process. This paper presents the framework Entities designed to provide support to the development of transient posture systems through conventional GUIs generated from annotations and using a layout language called Naked Objects View Language.

Norm-based Behavior Modification in Reflex Agents

The agent-oriented development is becoming more frequent in the industry and academy. Currently, more works are turning to the growth of this area. Many frameworks that support the development of Normative Multi-agent Systems. However, few works deal the impact of norms on individual behavior of the agent. Like many others, Jamder 2.0 framework follows this aspect. This paper discusses the modification of the behavior of simple reactive agent based on impact caused by norms on the Jamder 2.0 platform. This work has been collaborating for the extention of this framework, reestablishing the dynamism, that was in its first version, and giving it support for changing the behavior of simple reactive agent. In addition, new features have been included in the framework. Among them, an agent that is able to monitor the actions of a set of agents, evaluating them according to the norms and applying appropriate sanctions to these agents, if available. For illustrate extension, the Vacuum cleaner world was implement using the extended Jamder 2.0.

TAO+: Extending the Conceptual Framework TAO to Support Internal Agent Architectures in Normative Multi-Agent Systems

The existence of Normative Multi-Agent Systems, where the interaction between agents with different internal architectures is governed by norms, promotes the existence of an ontology suitable to define these related concepts. In this context, we highlight TAO, a conceptual framework for MAS, used as a foundation for the modeling language MAS-ML. However, TAO foresees limited support for representing the norm concepts and the different agent architectures. This paper describes the extension of TAO to allow the representation of these concepts.

Towards the modeling reactive and proactive agents by using MAS-ML

The existence of MAS where agents with different internal architectures interact promotes the need for a language capable of modeling these applications. This paper aims to extend the MAS-ML language in order to support the modeling of proactive and reactive agents.

Elihu: A Project to Model-Driven Development with Naked Objects and Domain-Driven Design.

The model-driven development is a approach to creating software through well-defined models containing the information needed to generate the application. However, the software modeling in this approach requires the definition of application infrastructure artifacts in the model, such as user interface technologies and data persistence scheme, in order to transform modeling in final application. This makes the modeling complex, difficult to understand and maintain since new artifacts need to be added, failing to keep the focus on application business domain. To resolve this problem, we propose the Elihu project, a solution based on Naked Objects Pattern, Domain-Driven Design and software design patterns where the developer models just business objects and their characteristics related to the application domain. The full application is generated based on these software patterns and a Naked Objects Pattern framework is responsible for the application infrastructure code and the display of objects to users. The proposed solution benefits the creation of less complex models, that support evolution and modification of requirements along the development and the generation of full applications without manual intervention in the generated code.

A Proactive Approach to Support Risk Management in Software Projects using Multi-agent Systems.

Software project management is a complex and demanding task full of threats or negative risks that lead to the delay or the failure of the project. Risks stem from many different internal sources as well as external ones in the company and the project. In addition, these events can originate in any phase of the project life cycle, and thereby increase the complexity of the decisions for the project manager. Aiming to reduce the negative consequences caused by these events, we propose an approach that extends a multi-agent system to provide support for risk management in software projects by using metrics and contingency reserves. The approach is evaluated with a feasibility study demonstrating that agent-oriented approaches are promising solutions that support risk management processes.

Business value characterization in software projects for electronic government in the Brazilian federal government

Public and private organizations have their focus on achieving business value from their project investments. However, the characterization of what business value means still remains open and its not mapped in the electronic government (e-Gov) scope. E-Gov is receiving increasingly significant investments. In 2017, only the Federal Revenue Service of Brazil has invested 1.2 billion reais in computerized systems. This paper aims to characterize business value in electronic government software projects in the Brazilian Federal Government scope, mapping the main characteristics of business value and barriers to its generation. Through the use of a mixed methodology, which comprises a qualitative phase undertaken in semi-structured interviews, combined with a quantitative phase, performed through a survey, we discovered that the main characteristics of business value in software projects for government are: guarantee of the provision of service to the citizen, provision of better service to the citizen, efficient operation of the business and enforce the law. The main barriers to value creation are: political decisions, lack of commitment of the people involved, lack of direct access to the client that defines and lack of communication between the software development involved areas. The knowledge about this characteristics can help government agencies, development teams and other actors involved in the production of software, in the execution of better projects, that generate greater business value and justify the investment. The identified barriers can contribute to the process of managing risks and opportunities in projects since their appropriate treatment can induce risk reduction / prevention in value generation for the organization.