Method Engineering for Multi-Agent System Design Methodologies

Towards filling the gap between AOSE
methodologies and infrastructures:
requirements and meta-model
Fabiano Dalpiaz¹, Ambra Molesini², Mariachiara Puviani³, Valeria Seidita⁴
¹ Università degli Studi di Trento
² Alma Mater Studiorum
³ Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
⁴ Università degli Studi di Palermo
WOA08 - Palermo
Outline
• Introduction to MEnSA
• Our approach
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Assembling a Metamodel
Requirements
Selection of fragments
Conceptual map
Metamodel
• Conclusions and future work
F. Dalpiaz, A. Molesini, M. Puviani, V. Seidita
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The MEnSA project: why?
• The development of complex systems requires a new
software engineering paradigm
– Agent-oriented methodologies
– Paradigmatic shift (from OO) at conceptual and technical
level
– No need to reinvent the wheel
– There are many agent-oriented methodologies
– Each methodology has different specificities and
application areas
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The MEnSA project: what?
• MEnSA
– “Methodology for the Engineering of complex Software systems:
Agent based approach”
– Filling the gap
– analysis and design, and implementation
– methodologies and infrastructures
– Metamodel-based approach
– Integration of existing fragments
• 3+1 partners
– Alma Mater Studiorum (Cesena), Università degli Studi di Modena e
Reggio Emilia, Università degli Studi di Trento, ICAR-CNR Palermo e
Università degli Studi di Palermo.
F. Dalpiaz, A. Molesini, M. Puviani, V. Seidita
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Our Approach
1. Definition of a set of requirements for the
methodology
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Generic requirements
Specific requirements derived from the selected
methodologies
2. Elicitation and analysis of a set of fragments that
satisfy the requirements
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starting from Tropos, GAIA, SODA and PASSI
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Our Approach
3. Definition of a semantic conceptual map
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To find out synonyms and inter-level relations between
concepts from different abstraction levels
3. Assembly of an integrated metamodel on the base
of the selected fragments
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General Requirements
• Transformational approach: from high-level
abstraction to low-level concrete entities
• Support for traceability
• Support for functional and non-functional
requirements
• Support for goal-oriented and functional-oriented
analysis
• Precise and compact modeling constructs for the
concept of agency
– Agent, Agent’s rationale, Situated agent, Social Agent
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Specific Requirements (1)
• Transformational process
– Requirement agent → Design agent → Implementation
agent
• Layering (supported by SODA)
– Zooming and Projection mechanisms
• Goal oriented analysis (Tropos) before functionaloriented analysis (Passi)
• Interaction
– Semantic communication + Ontology + compliance with
FIPA ACL
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Specific Requirements (2)
• Organizational Rules (Supported by GAIA)
• Environment and topology modeling
– SODA artifact and workspace
• Modeling of non-functional requirements
– Tropos soft-goals
• Modeling of Agent Plan
– Should not constrain to a specific kind of agent
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Assembling a meta-model
• Composition patterns:
– Elements from existing meta-models present the same
name but have different meanings
– Elements have the same meaning but different names
– Elements present totally disjoint names and definitions,
requiring just a simple composition
• Additional concepts and relations act as glue
• Outcome: Conceptual map + Glossary of term
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The Conceptual Map
Horizontal relations link synonym concepts
Vertical relations define inter-level links (realization)
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MEnSA metamodel
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MEnSA metamodel: requirements
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MEnSA metamodel: design
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Conclusion
• A process to define an integrated agent-oriented
meta-model
– Identification of the requirements for the target
methodology
– Selection of a list of fragments from the four considered
methodologies.
– Construction of a glossary
– Definition of a conceptual map of methodologies
abstractions
• Initial version of the meta-model
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Future Work
• Definition of the meta-model’s implementation
phase, extracted from a set of MAS infrastructures
• Refine the metamodel
– as a result of the work on the methodological aspects and
the validation phase over a case study
– splitting the two phases into different and more detailed
sub-phases
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Thanks for your attention
[email protected]
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