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What Software Engineering Has to Offer to Agent-Based Social Simulation

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Simulating Social Complexity

Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems ((UCS))

Abstract

In simulation projects, it is generally beneficial to have a toolset that allows following a more formal approach to system analysis, model design and model implementation. Such formal methods are developed to support a systematic approach by making different steps explicit as well as providing a precise language to express the results of those steps, documenting not just the final model but also intermediate steps. This chapter consists of two parts: the first gives an overview of which tools developed in software engineering can be and have been adapted to agent-based social simulation; the second part demonstrates with the help of an informative example how some of these tools can be combined into an overall structured approach to model development.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sommerville (2016) relates software engineering also to computer science. The latter is focusing more on theory and fundamentals, while software engineering is more practically oriented towards developing and delivering useful software. He also sees software engineering as a part of systems engineering which aims at systems integrating hardware, software and process engineering.

  2. 2.

    www.visual-paradigm.com. A free for non-commercial use community version exists.

  3. 3.

    products.office.com/en/visio/.

  4. 4.

    www.visualstudio.com.

  5. 5.

    eclipse.org.

  6. 6.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_agent-based_modeling_software,accessed 07/05/2016.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, Nottingham University, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK

    Peer-Olaf Siebers

  2. School of Science and Technology, Örebro University,  Örebro, Sweden

    Franziska Klügl

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  1. Peer-Olaf Siebers
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Policy Modelling, Manchester Metropolitan University, Business School, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Bruce Edmonds

  2. Centre for Policy Modelling, Manchester Metropolitan University, Business School, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Ruth Meyer

Further Reading

Further Reading

There is a host of literature on the topic of software engineering. A book that provides a comprehensive yet easy to understand entry to most of the software engineering topics discussed in this book chapter is Lethbridge and Laganiere (2005). If you are mainly interested in learning more about UML, then Fowler (2003) is sufficient. A lot of ideas for ABSS stem from the computer science field of artificial intelligence and herein particular multi-agent systems. A good overview on the wide area of topics (including AOSE) is Weiss (2013). Finally, the JASSS special issue “Engineering ABSS” (Siebers and Davidsson 2015) provides lots of information and case studies. The approach contrasts with that described in Chap. 5 in this volume.

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Siebers, PO., Klügl, F. (2017). What Software Engineering Has to Offer to Agent-Based Social Simulation. In: Edmonds, B., Meyer, R. (eds) Simulating Social Complexity. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66948-9_6

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