Integrating Process Modelling into Multi-Agent System Engineering

Abstract

While today's agent oriented software engineering facilitates the development of complex, distributed systems, fundamental problems remain. One of the problems is that the developer sees only part of the system, or one side of the business, but not the whole context. The Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is considered a remedy here, but while suitable for modelling some aspects of agenthood, there are others for which BPMN does not go very well. While well-suited for modelling behaviours and especially interactions at a high level of abstraction, BPMN is too cumbersome for modelling every detail of a process and too rigid for modelling dynamic behaviours. Therefore, BPMN has to be embedded into the agent engineering process such that its strengths can be exploited while avoiding its weaknesses. In this paper, BPMN is used mainly for modelling the agents' high-level behavior and communication, leaving other aspects to established agent programming techniques. The approach is applied for the JIAC multi-agent framework, for which a respective mapping of concepts is given. Finally, the prospects of such an approach are discussed, especially regarding the usage of BPMN for modelling dynamic aspects in agent systems.

@ARTICLE{Kuester2012Integrating,
  author = {Tobias K"{u}ster, Marco L"{u}tzenberger, Axel Hess{}ler, and Benjamin
	Hirsch},
  title = {Integrating Process Modelling into Multi-Agent System Engineering},
  journal = {Multiagent and Grid Systems},
  year = {2012},
  volume = {8},
  pages = {105--124},
  number = {1},
  month = {January},
  abstract = {While today's agent oriented software engineering facilitates the
	development of complex, distributed systems, fundamental problems
	remain. One of the problems is that the developer sees only part
	of the system, or one side of the business, but not the whole context.
	The Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) is considered a remedy
	here, but while suitable for modelling some aspects of agenthood,
	there are others for which BPMN does not go very well. While well-suited
	for modelling behaviours and especially interactions at a high level
	of abstraction, BPMN is too cumbersome for modelling every detail
	of a process and too rigid for modelling dynamic behaviours. Therefore,
	BPMN has to be embedded into the agent engineering process such that
	its strengths can be exploited while avoiding its weaknesses. In
	this paper, BPMN is used mainly for modelling the agents’ high-level
	behavior and communication, leaving other aspects to established agent
	programming techniques. The approach is applied for the JIAC multi-agent
	framework, for which a respective mapping of concepts is given. Finally,
	the prospects of such an approach are discussed, especially regarding
	the usage of BPMN for modelling dynamic aspects in agent systems.},
  doi = {10.3233/MGS-2012-0182},
  keywords = {Multi-agent systems, Software Engineering, Business Process Modelling,
	BPMN, JIAC},
  url = {http://iospress.metapress.com/content/88124719m6587n37/?p=80567cff26384a218c379ddd2a09e1eeπ=6}
}
Autoren:
Tobias Küster, Marco Lützenberger, Axel Heßler, Benjamin Hirsch
Kategorie:
Journal
Jahr:
2012
Ort:
Multiagent and Grid Systems - An International Journal, 8(1):105-124, January 2012