In order to celebrate the publication of Developing Intelligent Agent Systems: a practical guide by Lin Padgham and Michael Winikoff (Wiley and Sons, 2004, ISBN 0470861207), this session will compare experiences with a number of agent development methods.
Lin and Michael are senior researchers at RMIT School of Computer
Science and
Information Technology, and have been working in the field of
intelligent agents for the last 9 years and 5 years respectively. They
have recently written a book: Developing
Intelligent Agent Systems: A practical guide, published by Wiley
and Sons. The book describes the Prometheus agent oriented design
methodology that has been developed, in collaboration with Agent
Oriented Software, over the last 7 years. Lin will give a brief
overview of key aspects of the methodology and Michael will briefly
demonstrate the prototype Prometheus Design Tool which supports the use
of the methodology.
Slides - Lin Padgham (pdf), Michael Winikoff (pdf).
Shanika Karunasekera is a Senior lecturer in CSSE working with the
ROADMAP methodology. Leon Sterling is the Adacel Chair of
Software Innovation and Engineering working in the area of
agent-oriented software engineering.
Slides - Shanika
Karunasekera (pdf).
Interest in agent-oriented methodologies is growing. From a study of the genealogy of these methodologies, we can identify influences and commonalities that then form a basis for advancing the state-of-the-art in AO methodologies, together with the incorporation of ideas from the method engineering community. Using the OPEN Process Framework as an exemplar, we demonstrate the value of method engineering in creating support for agent-oriented software engineering, concluding with recommendations for future work.
BRIAN HENDERSON-SELLERS is Director of the Centre for Object
Technology Applications and Research and Professor of Information
Systems at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). He is author
of eleven books on object technology and is well-known for his work in
OO methodologies (MOSES, COMMA, OPEN, OOSPICE) and in OO metrics. He
has chaired workshops at OOPSLA and AOIS on agent-oriented
methodologies.
In July 2001, Professor Henderson-Sellers was awarded a Doctor of
Science (DSc) from the University of London for his research
contributions in object-oriented methodologies.
Slides - Brian
Henderson-Sellers (pdf).
I'll ring the bell for my hobby horse view that Agent Model and Data
Model are two rather different
(but complementary) design perspectives, both of which are applicable
for an Agent System.
Similarly. from a few years experience with team modelling, we can recognise a Team Model perspective that is distinct from both Agent and Data Models, and is concerned with the interrelationships between the teams and subteams that constitute a system. This in turn requires a different methodology.
Dr. Ralph Rönnquist is the General Manager, Technolgy for Agent
Oriented Software (AOS) in Australia. With a background in
artifical
intelligence, he has worked over a decade with agent application
development, and has held courses for industry and lectures on agent
based software engineering.
Slides - Ralph
Rönnquist (pdf).