The Application of Object-Oriented Analysis to Agent-Based Systems

Agents are important software abstractions for dist ribu ed problem solving and autonomous, proactive behavior. They have been used in many application s, i cluding manufacturing, enterprise integration , network management, and advanced user interfaces fo r worldwide web applications. As agent systems become more prevalent, the need arises for software engineering methodologies. The relationships between agents and objects, and the role of object oriented analysis in multiagent system development are discussed here. The approach is illustrated wi th a case study from discrete parts manufacturing. 1.0 INTRODUCTION Numerous examples can be found of applications of a gent based systems to enterprise integration ; concurrent engineering ; and manufacturing . Many agent based systems have also been develope d f r network management , scheduling, and advanced user interfaces . These systems exhibit significant advances in distributed problem solving and pro-act ive behavior. For many areas, especially humancomputerinteraction (HCI), worldwideweb appli cations, and business process management , agents that pro-actively carry out autonomous behav ior and cooperate with each other through negotiation represent the next important software a bstr ction or metaphor . As agent oriented systems become more widely u sed and integrated to mainstream applications, software engineering becomes an important considera t on. To date, most agent based systems have been developed within the artificial intelligence c ommunity, and the need for development methodologies has become well known. Some initial work in software engineering of agent based systems has been completed, but most of it has conc entrated on software architecture and omitted specification entirely 18, . Previous work 15 indicated that an agent could be identified as a p rocess or a data store in a data flow diagram with real time ex tensions. However, agent behavior is actually quit e different from a data flow process. The need to co nsider work flow and not just data flow 23 for agents has been discussed, as agents cooperate and coordin ate their activities much as individuals do in organizations or enterprises. As agents must be designed and implemented in software, a workflow representation alone can not be used. In this paper, existing methodologies fo r object oriented modelling and analysis are extend ed to encompass agent oriented systems. In particula r, the use case driven object oriented software engineering (OOSE) approach is utilized, with exten sio s for constraint technologies. The result is a methodology for specifying and analysing agent base d systems.

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