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From a software engineering point of view, the agent paradigm has shown its potential for modelling in different domains. However, moving from agent models to implementation is not fully addressed by most agent-oriented methodologies in a systematic way. In most cases, they focus on the agent concept at the analysis level or look for visual or formal representations of elements present in an already implemented agent framework. Here we show that model driven development with agent-based models can facilitate the implementation of methods and tools for the development of multi-agent systems. This is illustrated with the INGENIAS methodology and its tools, the INGENIAS Development Kit (IDK), which are founded on the definition of the INGENIAS meta-models for multi-agent systems, and implement most of the facilities that a model driven development approach requires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, we have different agent oriented methodologies that enable developers to produce agent oriented designs. One of the recurrent problems of these methodologies is how to describe the behaviour of agents within a system. A developer needs primitives to express autonomy, proactivity, and social concerns of his agents, but there are problems in understanding what does these elements mean, beyond any natural language explanation. There is a clear need of semantic models understandable by average engineers. These models could help in foreseeing the impact of autonomy with respect system goals, or determining if, in an agent specification, a task will ever be scheduled for execution. This paper presents a proposal of semantic model for the visual modelling language used in INGENIAS, a project started in 2002 and considered the inheritor of MESSAGE/UML. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Requirements Elicitation for a software system is a key stage in a successful development. At the same time, it is one of the most challenging, because requirements have to consider the mutual influences between the envisioned system and the human context where it will work. These influences cover aspects such as organization, motivation, evolution, and cognition, taking place in a specific setting. The agent paradigm facilitates the analysis of these features because of its intentional and social nature. Nevertheless, determining the information that should be obtained and the way it should be modelled is not a trivial task. Developers are experts in software systems but they are not always familiarized with the concrete domain of those systems. The Requirements Elicitation Guide, a technique based on the Activity Theory from Social Sciences, can be applied to support developers in these issues. This guide empowers the development team with the experience of Social Sciences in these issues. This paper introduces the guide and shows its application in a case study about a web application. Keywords: Multi-Agent Systems Development, Activity Theory, Activity Checklist, Requirements Elicitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of multi-agent systems (MAS) implies considering both the social and individual levels of these systems. However, the elements in these levels are not necessarily consistent. Conflicts can arise between the goals of the community and those of individual agents. These contradictions are potentially very complex, given the inherent intentional nature of agents and the interactive features of their societies. Developers can face these problems about contradictions with traditional software engineering verification techniques. Nevertheless, these techniques always depend on the understanding of developers about what properties to check. Abstractions of the agent paradigm offer a new possibility for verification: the use of expert knowledge from social sciences to detect and solve this kind of problems. Social sciences and MAS research share a similar view about their objects of study: societies of intentional actors. With this basis, it is possible to adapt the expertise of social sciences to the study of MAS, providing a new source of knowledge for the verification of MAS focused in their social and intentional features. Based on our previous research, we have developed a method to solve motivational contradictions with one of these social theories, the Activity Theory. This method is explained with a case study about the management of a bookstore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social and intentional behaviours appear as two main components of the agent paradigm. Methods of conventional software engineering do not seem to be appropriate to gain a full knowledge of these behavioural aspects, as they are not traditional software components. Their study involves new concepts and techniques, belonging to social sciences, to be integrated into software development. In this paper we show how to use the Activity Theory as a support for current Multi-Agent System methodologies. The application of the same social concepts at every stage of the development cycle allows requirements traceability, and provides methods to describe social properties and decide whether the specification satisfies them or not. The use of the approach is shown with a case study. Keywords:Multi-Agent Systems Development, Activity Theory, Activity Checklist, Requirements Elicitation [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]