Abstract
This paper presents a method that aims at assisting an engineer in transforming agent roles models to a process model. Thus, the software engineer can employ available tools to validate specific properties of the modeled system before its final implementation. The method includes a tool for aiding the engineer in the transformation process. This tool uses a recursive algorithm for automating the transformation process and guides the user to dynamically integrate two or more agent roles in a process model with multiple pools. The tool usage is demonstrated through a running example, based on a real world project. Simulations of the defined agent roles can be used to (a) validate the system requirements and (b) determine how it could scale. This way, engineers, analysts and managers can configure the processes’ parameters and identify and resolve risks early in their project.
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Notes
- 1.
ASK-IT has been co-funded by the European Union under the 6th Framework Programme (no IST-2003-511298).
- 2.
The BPM Academic Initiative of Signavio offers a web-based process modeling platform to students, lecturers and researchers, http://www.signavio.com/bpm-academic-initiative.
- 3.
E.g. the “Convert XPDL to BPMN” service provided freely on-line by Trisotech, http://www.businessprocessincubator.com.
- 4.
- 5.
WADE is a software platform based on JADE providing support for the execution of tasks defined using the workflow metaphor, http://jade.tilab.com/wadeproject.
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Appendix: The Recursive Transformation Algorithm
Appendix: The Recursive Transformation Algorithm
The pseudocode of the tranformation algorithm is presented below. The different model elements are represented as classes and their properties as class properties, accessible using the dot operator, i.e. < classname > .<property > . For representing a list we use a List class that supports the operations add (to add an element to the list) and size (to return the number of its elements). The program takes as input an XPDL Package instance and the String liveness property of an SRM Role instance.



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Mitakidis, N., Delias, P., Spanoudakis, N. (2015). Validating Requirements Using Gaia Roles Models. In: Baldoni, M., Baresi, L., Dastani, M. (eds) Engineering Multi-Agent Systems. EMAS 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9318. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26184-3_10
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