Ebook: Methodologies and Software Engineering for Agent Systems: The Agent-Oriented Software Engineering Handbook

As information technologies become increasingly distributed and accessible to larger number of people and as commercial and government organizations are challenged to scale their applications and services to larger market shares, while reducing costs, there is demand for software methodologies and appli- tions to provide the following features: Richer application end-to-end functionality; Reduction of human involvement in the design and deployment of the software; Flexibility of software behaviour; and Reuse and composition of existing software applications and systems in novel or adaptive ways. When designing new distributed software systems, the above broad requi- ments and their translation into implementations are typically addressed by partial complementarities and overlapping technologies and this situation gives rise to significant software engineering challenges. Some of the challenges that may arise are: determining the components that the distributed applications should contain, organizing the application components, and determining the assumptions that one needs to make in order to implement distributed scalable and flexible applications, etc.

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With increasing acceptance of agent-based computing, a great deal of new research related to the identification and definition of suitable models, and techniques to support the development of complex Multiagent Systems (MAS) has emerged. This research generally identified as Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE), continually proposes new metaphors, new formal modeling approaches and techniques, and new developement methodologies and tools. The contributions in Methodology and Software Engineering for Agent Systems, written by leading international researchers, bring together these diverse research results and proposals. The book is separated into six parts, providing the reader with introductory material, concepts and techniques that already provide results for practical use, and research that is still more investigative in nature.

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With increasing acceptance of agent-based computing, a great deal of new research related to the identification and definition of suitable models, and techniques to support the development of complex Multiagent Systems (MAS) has emerged. This research generally identified as Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE), continually proposes new metaphors, new formal modeling approaches and techniques, and new developement methodologies and tools. The contributions in Methodology and Software Engineering for Agent Systems, written by leading international researchers, bring together these diverse research results and proposals. The book is separated into six parts, providing the reader with introductory material, concepts and techniques that already provide results for practical use, and research that is still more investigative in nature.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xxx
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Introduction....Pages 3-5
Agent-Based Abstractions for Software Development....Pages 5-18
On the Use of Agents as Components of Software Systems....Pages 19-31
A Survey on Agent-Oriented Oriented Software Engineering Research....Pages 33-62
Front Matter....Pages 63-63
Introduction....Pages 65-67
The Gaia Methodology....Pages 69-88
The Tropos Methodology....Pages 89-106
The MaSE Methodology....Pages 107-125
A Comparative Evaluation of Agent-Oriented Methodologies....Pages 127-149
Front Matter....Pages 151-151
Introduction....Pages 153-155
The ADELFE Methodology....Pages 157-175
The Message Methodology....Pages 177-194
The SADDE Methodology....Pages 195-216
The Prometheus Methodology....Pages 217-234
Front Matter....Pages 235-235
The AUML Approach....Pages 237-257
FIPA-Compliant Agent Infrastructures....Pages 259-272
Coordination Infrastructures in the Engineering of Multiagent Systems....Pages 273-296
Front Matter....Pages 297-297
Introduction....Pages 299-301
Engineering Amorphous Computing Systems....Pages 303-320
Making Self-Organising Adaptive Multiagent Systems Work....Pages 321-340
Front Matter....Pages 297-297
Engineering Swarming Systems....Pages 341-376
Online Engineering and Open Computational Systems....Pages 377-390
Front Matter....Pages 391-391
Introduction....Pages 393-394
Agents for Ubiquitous Computing....Pages 395-412
Agents and the Grid....Pages 413-430
Roadmap of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering....Pages 431-450
Back Matter....Pages 451-505

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With increasing acceptance of agent-based computing, a great deal of new research related to the identification and definition of suitable models, and techniques to support the development of complex Multiagent Systems (MAS) has emerged. This research generally identified as Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE), continually proposes new metaphors, new formal modeling approaches and techniques, and new developement methodologies and tools. The contributions in Methodology and Software Engineering for Agent Systems, written by leading international researchers, bring together these diverse research results and proposals. The book is separated into six parts, providing the reader with introductory material, concepts and techniques that already provide results for practical use, and research that is still more investigative in nature.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xxx
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Introduction....Pages 3-5
Agent-Based Abstractions for Software Development....Pages 5-18
On the Use of Agents as Components of Software Systems....Pages 19-31
A Survey on Agent-Oriented Oriented Software Engineering Research....Pages 33-62
Front Matter....Pages 63-63
Introduction....Pages 65-67
The Gaia Methodology....Pages 69-88
The Tropos Methodology....Pages 89-106
The MaSE Methodology....Pages 107-125
A Comparative Evaluation of Agent-Oriented Methodologies....Pages 127-149
Front Matter....Pages 151-151
Introduction....Pages 153-155
The ADELFE Methodology....Pages 157-175
The Message Methodology....Pages 177-194
The SADDE Methodology....Pages 195-216
The Prometheus Methodology....Pages 217-234
Front Matter....Pages 235-235
The AUML Approach....Pages 237-257
FIPA-Compliant Agent Infrastructures....Pages 259-272
Coordination Infrastructures in the Engineering of Multiagent Systems....Pages 273-296
Front Matter....Pages 297-297
Introduction....Pages 299-301
Engineering Amorphous Computing Systems....Pages 303-320
Making Self-Organising Adaptive Multiagent Systems Work....Pages 321-340
Front Matter....Pages 297-297
Engineering Swarming Systems....Pages 341-376
Online Engineering and Open Computational Systems....Pages 377-390
Front Matter....Pages 391-391
Introduction....Pages 393-394
Agents for Ubiquitous Computing....Pages 395-412
Agents and the Grid....Pages 413-430
Roadmap of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering....Pages 431-450
Back Matter....Pages 451-505
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