Quynh-Nhu Numi Tran

MOBMAS: A methodology for ontology-based multi-agent systems development

Ontologies offer significant benefits to multi-agent systems: interoperability, reusability, support for multi-agent system (MAS) development activities (such as system analysis and agent knowledge modeling) and support for MAS operation (such as agent communication and reasoning). This paper presents an ontology-based methodology, MOBMAS, for the analysis and design of multi-agent systems. MOBMAS is the first methodology that explicitly identifies and implements the various ways in which ontologies can be used in the MAS development process and integrated into the MAS model definitions. In this paper, we present comprehensive documentation and validation of MOBMAS.

A preliminary comparative feature analysis of multi-agent systems development methodologies

While there are a considerable number of software engineering methodologies for developing multi-agent systems, not much work has been reported on the evaluation and comparison of these methodologies. This paper presents a comparative analysis of five well-known MAS-development methodologies. The comparison is based on a feature analysis framework published previously. This framework allows the comparative analysis to be made on a variety of evaluation criteria, covering both agent-oriented aspects and system engineering dimensions. The analysis also compares the methodologies in terms of their support for the steps in the development process and for agent-oriented concept modeling.

Identification of reusable method fragments from the PASSI agent-oriented methodology

Theoretical proposals for the development of reusable method fragments are applied to the identification of method fragments in the agent-oriented methodology, PASSI. The format of these fragments is ensured as compatible with the structure and format already established for the OPEN Process Framework’s (OPF) repository, which uses a method engineering (ME) approach. Since the OPF repository has already been enhanced by fragments from several other AO methodologies, we expect a “convergence to completion” (or near-completion) such that most of the PASSI fragments are likely to map to existing OPF fragments. Indeed, only seven new fragments (six of which are novel diagram types) are identified in this study.

Adding Agent-Oriented Concepts Derived from Gaia to Agent OPEN

Agent OPEN offers extensions of an object-oriented methodological framework to support agent-oriented software developments. However, to date, it is incomplete. Here, we extend the Agent OPEN repository of process components to include contributions from the Gaia agent-oriented methodology. We have identified one new Task, together with six new subtasks for some pre-existing Tasks. Three extra Techniques and five new Work Products were identified and recommended to be added in order to support the Gaia approach for agent-oriented software development.

A Feature Analysis Framework for Evaluating Multi-Agent System Development Methodologies

This paper proposes a comprehensive and multi-dimensional feature analysis framework for evaluating and comparing methodologies for developing multi-agent systems (MAS). Developed from a synthesis of various existing evaluation frameworks, the novelty of our framework lies in the high degree of its completeness and the relevance of its evaluation criteria. The paper also presents a pioneering effort in identifying the standard steps and concepts to be supported by a MAS-development process and models.

Conceptual modelling within the MAS-CommonKADS plus OPEN method engineering approach

Evaluation of the MAS-CommonKADS approach for the development of agent-oriented software leads us to propose a number of conceptual modelling elements for inclusion in the metamodelling-based OPEN method engineering approach. In order to support the concepts in MAS-CommonKADS using this existing process framework (namely OPEN), we identify three new tasks, together with two new subtasks and ten additional work products that need to be added to the existing OPEN repository. Using method engineering, it then becomes possible to generate a tailored agent-oriented methodology from this suite of method fragments.

Incorporating elements from the prometheus agent-oriented methodology in the OPEN process framework

As part of an extensive research programme to combine the benefits of method engineering and existing object-oriented frameworks (notably the OPEN Process Framework or OPF) to create a highly supportive methodological environment for the construction of agent-oriented information systems, we have analysed here contributions to the OPF repository of method fragments from the Prometheus agent-oriented methodology. We have identified three new Tasks, together with two new subtasks for a pre-existing Task and one additional Technique. Prometheus has also supplied the OPF with four new Work Products but no additional Roles or Stages.

Agent-Oriented Information Systems Development Using Open and the Agent Factory

Information systems development (ISD) requires the underpinning of a high quality methodology (which includes elements to describe both the process of development and the work products which are the consumables used and produced by the process). However, each ISD project is different and the best-fit methodology is also consequently different. This means that a one-size-fits-all methodology will only rarely give ideal results (Cockburn, 2000), when the tenets of the methodology designer coincidentally coincide with those of the particular project. Rather than seeking an all-encompassing methodology, we advocate here the use of method engineering (Brinkkemper, 1996) or, preferably, situational method engineering or SME (Ter Hofstede and Verhoef, 1997). SME involves defining a repository of method fragments together with techniques for assembling these method fragments or method chunks (Rolland and Prakash, 1996) into site-specific methodologies specifically tuned to the situation of the project at hand (Brinkkemper, 1996) i.e. one that meets the requirements of a particular project. Thus, selection of method fragments is individualized and “tailored” to the specific requirements of the organization and project using construction guidelines supplied with the repository (Brinkkemper et al., 1998; Ralyté and Rolland, 2001). Many papers describing situational method engineering tend to focus on the process engineering element rather than the combination of process and product viz. the “methodology”. Since “process” is therefore a subset of “methodology”, when discussing only the “process” component of a methodology, the term process engineering is often substituted for the broader term “method engineering”. For commercial adoption, the first choice is a widely used methodology framework with an existing extensive catalogue of method fragments. OPEN (Object-oriented Process,

Incorporating elements from CAMLE in the open repository

The CAMLE approach offers a methodological framework for the development of multi-agent systems. However, this approach does not provide full coverage of the needs often found in information systems development, lacking, for example, an appropriate capability for customization or links to infrastructural, non-engineering processes. By adopting a method engineering perspective, it is possible to integrate the best parts of CAMLE into the OPEN repository so organizations can create and own customized variants of CAMLE as necessary.