4.1.1 Agent Systems Architectures for Complex and distributed Product Development Systems

In complex system development projects the agent system describes the company's organization with its structures and resources carrying out all the tasks as agents. This includes all the individuals and organizational units (e.g., departments, teams, employees) as well as important resources like installations, machinery, equipment or tools, methods, software, specific know-how (Negele, 1998; Negele & Wenzel, 2000). But when should we use which organizational structure or tool/method? Basically an adequate architecture and design of the agents/means to conduct a system development is highly interdependent from product and process architecture. This paper provides a methodology, which allows us to measure the degree of integration within a distributed product development environment and to specify the cost associated. Thus, cost/benefit ratios can be calculated for different scenarios. Upfront it describes a framework, how product development environments, and the process-, product-, and agent-system can be structured, classified, and how they are interrelated. On the basis of the product and process architecture organizational- and tool-structure decisions for complex product development systems can be made