Abstract
While there are a considerable number of software engineering methodologies for developing multi-agent systems, not much work has been reported on the evaluation and comparison of these methodologies. This paper presents a comparative analysis of five well-known MAS-development methodologies. The comparison is based on a feature analysis framework published previously. This framework allows the comparative analysis to be made on a variety of evaluation criteria, covering both agent-oriented aspects and system engineering dimensions. The analysis also compares the methodologies in terms of their support for the steps in the development process and for agent-oriented concept modeling.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Tran, Q.-N.N., Low, G., Williams, M.-A.: A feature analysis framework for evaluating multi-agent system development methodologies. In: Zhong, N., Raś, Z.W., Tsumoto, S., Suzuki, E. (eds.) ISMIS 2003. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 2871, pp. 613–617. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Wood, M.: Multiagent Systems Engineering: A Methodology for Analysis and Design of Multiagent Systems. MS Thesis, Air Force Institute of Technology, USA (2000)
Wooldridge, M., Jennings, N.R., Kinny, D.: The Gaia methodology for agent-oriented analysis and design. Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems 3, 285–312 (2000)
Zambonelli, F., Jennings, N., Wooldridge, M.: Developing multiagent systems: the Gaia methodology. ACM Transaction on Software Engineering and Methodology (in press)
Kinny, D., Georgeff, M., Rao, A.: A Methodology and Modelling Technique for Systems of BDI Agents. In: Proc. of the 7th European Workshop on Modelling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World, pp. 56–71 (1996)
Padgham, L., Winikoff, M.: Prometheus: a methodology for developing intelligent agents. In: Proc. of the 1st Int. Joint Conf. on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (2002)
Iglesias, C.A., Garijo, M., Gonzalez, J.C., Velasco, J.R.: Analysis and Design of Multiagent Systems Using MAS-CommonKADS. In: Rao, A., Singh, M.P., Wooldridge, M.J. (eds.) ATAL 1997. LNCS, vol. 1365. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)
Wood, B., Pethia, R., Gold, L.R., Firth, R.: A Guide to the Assessment of Software Development Methods. Technical Report CMUSEI-88-TR-8, SEI, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University (1988)
Jayaratna, N.: Understanding and Evaluating Methodologies - NIMSAD A Systematic Framework. McGraw-Hill, England (1994)
Olle, T.W., Sol, H.G., Tully, C.J. (eds.): Information Systems Design Methodologies - A Feature Analysis. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam (1983)
The Object Agency Inc.: A Comparison of Object-Oriented Development methodologies (1995), http://www.toa.com/smnn?mcr.html
Shehory, O., Sturm, A.: Evaluation of modeling techniques for agent-based systems. In: Proc. of the 5th Int. Conf. on Autonomous agents, pp. 624–631 (2001)
O’Malley, S.A., DeLoach, S.A.: Determining When to Use an Agent-Oriented Software Engineering Paradigm. In: Wooldridge, M.J., Weiß, G., Ciancarini, P. (eds.) AOSE 2001. LNCS, vol. 2222, p. 188. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)
Cernuzzi, L., Rossi, G.: On the Evaluation of Agent-Oriented Modelling Methods. In: Proc. of the OOPSLA Workshop on Agent-Oriented Methodologies (2002)
Sabas, A., Badri, M., Delisle, S.: A Multidimentional Framework for the Evaluation of Multiagent System Methodologies. In: Proc. of the 6th World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (SCI 2002), pp. 211–216 (2002)
Iglesias, C.A., Garijo, M., Gonzalez, J.C.: A survey of agent-oriented methodologies. In: Proc. of the 5th Int. Workshop on Intelligent Agents V: Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages (1999)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Tran, QN.N., Low, G., Williams, MA. (2005). A Preliminary Comparative Feature Analysis of Multi-agent Systems Development Methodologies. In: Bresciani, P., Giorgini, P., Henderson-Sellers, B., Low, G., Winikoff, M. (eds) Agent-Oriented Information Systems II. AOIS 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 3508. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11426714_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11426714_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-25911-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31946-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)