Title: Developing multi-agent system product lines: from requirements to code

Authors: Ingrid Nunes; Carlos J.P. De Lucena; Donald Cowan; Uirá Kulesza; Paulo Alencar; Camila Nunes

Addresses: Department of Informatics, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro 22451-900, Brazil. ' Department of Informatics, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro 22451-900, Brazil. ' David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo 721302, Canada. ' Department of Informatics and Applied Mathematics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal 59078-970, Brazil. ' David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo 721302, Canada. ' Department of Informatics, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro 22451-900, Brazil

Abstract: Many modern software systems have autonomous, open, context-aware and highly-interactive properties. The agent abstraction with its autonomous and pro-active characteristics and the related discipline of agent-oriented software engineering (AOSE) are promising paradigms to address these types of systems. Even though agents are frequently being adopted, little effort has been directed in AOSE methodologies toward extensive software reuse techniques, which can provide both reduced time-to-market and lower development costs. Multi-agent system product lines (MAS-PLs) are the result of the integration of AOSE with software product lines (SPLs). SPLs bring many reuse benefits to the agent domain through the exploitation of common characteristics among family members. In this context, this paper presents a domain engineering process for developing MAS-PLs. It defines activities and work products, whose purposes include supporting agent variability and providing agent feature traceability, both not addressed by current SPL and AOSE approaches.

Keywords: multi-agent systems; MAS; software product lines; SPLs; domain engineering; software process; software reuse; agent-based systems; agent-oriented software engineering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAOSE.2011.043643

International Journal of Agent-Oriented Software Engineering, 2011 Vol.4 No.4, pp.353 - 389

Received: 04 Mar 2010
Accepted: 10 Feb 2011
Published online: 22 Oct 2014 *

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