AGENTS AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Softwareengineerscontinuallystriveto developtools andtechniquesto managethe complexity that is inherentin softwaresystems.In this article,we argue that intelligent agents and agent-basedsystemsare just suchtools.Following a discussionon thesubject of whatmakessoftwarecomplex, we introduceintelligentagentsassoftwarestructurescapableof making “rational decisions”. Suchrationaldecision-mak ers arewell-suitedto theconstructionof certaintypesof software,whichmainstreamsoftwareengineeringhas had little successwith. We then go on to examine a numberof prototypetechniquesproposedfor engineeringagentsystems, includingformalspecification andverificationmethodsfor agentsystems, andtechniquesfor implementingagentspecifications.

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