Requirements Modeling for Multi-Agent Systems
L. Rodriguez, Emilio Insfrán, Luca Cernuzzi · InTech eBooks · 2011
The inadequate management of system requirements is a major cause of problems in software development (Anton, 2006).Requirements Engineering is a branch of Software Engineering and includes a set of activities concerning the identification, specification, validation, and management of system requirements.However, a traditional approach to requirements engineering may not be fully effective for certain complex systems that require high levels or specific kinds of abstractions, and the need to define more specific requirements engineering processes for these types of systems thus arises.A Multi-Agent System (MAS) is a specific type of system that is composed of multiple intelligent agents that interact with each other to achieve certain objectives.These systems can be used to solve problems that it is difficult or impossible for a monolithic or a single agent system to resolve.In recent years, various methodologies have been proposed to guide the development of multi-agent systems, such as Tropos (Giorgini et al., 2005), Ingenias (Gómez-Sanz & Pavón, 2003), Gaia (Zambonelli et al., 2003), etc.However, despite the importance of the requirements phase in the development of software systems, many of the proposed methodologies for the development of MAS do not adequately cover the requirements engineering phase (Cernuzzi et al., 2005), focusing mainly on the design and implementation phases.Moreover, a recent study on the application of requirements engineering techniques in the development of a multi-agent system (Blanes et al. a, 2009) found that 79% of the current methodologies for MAS development use requirements engineering techniques which have been adapted from other paradigms (object orientation, knowledge engineering, etc.) (Anton, 2006).However, these techniques and notations may not be sufficient to cover the nature of MAS, since these systems, along with their organizational, structural, or functional properties, characteristics that are not normally necessary in conventional software systems such as pro-activity, adaptability, collaboration, truth, or disposition (Blanes et al. a, 2009).These characteristics are denominated as social behavior (Hector & Lakshmi, 2005).Therefore, there is a need for new methods and techniques that enable the appropriate acquisition and treatment of MAS requirements.www.intechopen.com