The INGENIAS Methodology and Tools

INGENIAS provides a notation for modeling multi-agent systems (MAS) and a well-defined collection of activities to guide the development process of an MAS in the tasks of analysis, design, verification, and code generation, supported by an integrated set of tools—the INGENIAS Development Kit (IDK). These tools, as well as the INGENIAS notation, are based on five meta-models that define the different views and concepts from which a multi-agent system can be described. Using meta-models has the advantage of flexibility for evolving the methodology and adopting changes to the notation. In fact, one of the purposes in the conception of this methodology is to integrate progressive advances in agent technology, towards a standard for agent-based systems modeling that could facilitate the adoption of the agent approach by the software industry. The chapter presents a summary of the INGENIAS notation, development process, and support tools. The use of INGENIAS is demonstrated in an e-business case study. This case study includes concerns about the development process, modeling with agent concepts, and implementation with automated code generation facilities.

Towards Radical Agent-Oriented Software Engineering Processes Based on AOR Modeling

This chapter proposes a new agent-oriented software engineering process called RAP, which follows the Rational Unified Process (RUP) in many ways, but is based on Agent-Object-Relationship (AOR) modelling instead of object-oriented modelling. The chapter briefly presents the foundational ontology that supports the methodology and introduces the RAP/AOR viewpoint modelling framework. It then describes the modelling from the interaction, information, and behavior aspects of the framework by using a case study of business-to-business electronic commerce. Finally, the chapter describes an implementation approach based on the Model Driven

Creating a Comprehensive Agent-Oriented Methodology

While individual agent-oriented methodologies are useful for restricted situations, a more flexible approach can be found in the use of situational method engineering. Using an underpinning metamodel, a repository of method fragments can be built up and, from this, a selected number of fragments can be abstracted to form an organization-specific or project-specific methodology. As an example, we demonstrate the use of the OPEN metamodel and repository, as extended to support agent-oriented conceptual thinking. Re-creation of existing methodologies, such as Prometheus, is demonstrated with further enhancements from other methodologies such as Tropos and Gaia.

Engineering Adaptive Multi-Agent Systems

This chapter introduces the ADELFE methodology, an agent-oriented methodology dedicated to the design of systems that are complex, open, and not well-specified. The need for its development is justified by the theoretical background given in the first section, which also gives an overview of the concepts on which multi-agent systems developed with ADELFE are based. A methodology is composed of a process, a notation, and tools. Tools are presented in the second section and the process in the third one, using an information system case study to better visualize how to apply this process.

Multi-Agent Systems as Computational Organizations

The multi-agent system paradigm introduces a number of new design/development issues when compared with more traditional approaches to software development and calls for the adoption of new software engineering abstractions. To this end, in this chapter, we elaborate on the potential of analyzing and architecting complex multi-agent systems in terms of computational organizations. Specifically, we identify the appropriate organizational abstractions that are central to the analysis and design of such systems, discuss their role and importance, and show how such abstractions are exploited in the context of the Gaia methodology for multi-agent systems development.

From Requirements to Code with PASSI Methodology

A Process for Agent Societies Specification and Implementation (PASSI) is a step-by-step requirement-to-code methodology for designing and developing multi-agent societies, integrating design models and concepts from both object-oriented (OO) software engineering and artificial intelligence approaches using the UML notation. The models and phases of PASSI encompass representation of system requirements, social viewpoint, solution architecture, code production and reuse, and deployment configuration supporting mobility of agents. The methodology is illustrated by the well-known Bookstore case study.

Tropos

Software systems of the future will have to perform well within ever-changing organizational environments. Unfortunately, existing software development methodologies have traditionally been inspired by programming concepts rather than organizational ones, leading to a semantic gap between the system and its operational environment. To reduce this gap, we propose a software development methodology named Tropos that is founded on the i* organizational modeling framework. i* offers the notions of actor, goal, and (actor) dependency. Tropos uses these concepts as a basis to model early and late requirements, architectural design, and detailed design for a software system. The chapter outlines Tropos phases through an e-business example. The methodology is a good complement to proposals for agent-oriented programming platforms.

Prometheus

We present the Prometheus methodology for designing agents and multi-agent systems. The methodology is intended to be practical; in particular, it aims to be complete and detailed, and to be usable by industrial software developers and undergraduate students. We present the methodology using a case study, describe existing tools that support both design and implementation, and report on experiences with using Prometheus, including our experiences in teaching Prometheus to an undergraduate class over the past few years. These experiences provide evidence that Prometheus is usable by its intended target audience.

Multi-Agent Systems Engineering

This chapter provides an overview of the Multi-agent Systems Engineering (MaSE) methodology for analyzing and designing multi-agent systems. MaSE consists of two main phases that result in the creation of a set of complementary models that get successively closer to implementation. MaSE has been used to design systems ranging from a heterogeneous database integration system to a biologically based, computer virus-immune system to cooperative robotics systems. The authors also provide a case study of an actual system developed using MaSE in an effort to help demonstrate the practical aspects of developing systems using MaSE. Architecture (MDA) and Extended Markup Language (XML). The methodology is aimed at the creation of distributed socio-technical systems consisting of both humans and technical, including software, components that may, in turn, include software agents.

The MESSAGE Methodology for Agent-Oriented Analysis and Design

This chapter presents the MESSAGE agent-oriented software engineering methodology and illustrates it in an analysis and design case study. The methodology covers MAS analysis and design and is intended for use in mainstream software engineering departments. MESSAGE integrates into a coherent AOSE methodology basic agent-related concepts (such as organisation, role, goal, interaction, and task) that have so far been studied largely in isolation. The MESSAGE notation extends the UML with agent knowledge-level concepts and diagrams with notations for viewing them. The proposed diagrams extend UML class and activity diagrams. TheMESSAGE analysis and design process is based on the Rational Unified Process (RUP). The methodology distinguishes high-level from detailed design. An organisation-driven approach is presented for detailed design, where the global architecture of the MAS is derived from the structure and behaviour of the organisations that interact. Experimentation with the methodology shows that it supports the analysis and design of multi-agent systems that are flexible and adapt to specific kind of changes in a heterogeneous and dynamic environment.