© Eric Yu Business Processes (from Steve Easterbrook RE slides) Business Process Automation Leave existing business processes as they are Look for opportunities to automate parts of the process Can make an organisation more efficient; has least impact on the business Business Process Improvement Make moderate changes to the way the organisation operates E.g. improve efficiency and/or effectiveness of existing process Techniques: Duration analysis; activity-based costing; benchmarking Business Process Reengineering Fundamental change to the way the organisation operates Techniques: Outcome analysis - focus on the real outcome from the customer’s perspective Technology analysis - look for opportunities to exploit new technology Activity elimination - consider each activity in turn as a candidate for elimination
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5 Agent Oriented Software Development References
© Eric Yu Agent-Oriented Software Situated / Pro-active sense the environment and perform actions that change the environment Autonomous have control over their own actions and internal states can act without direct intervention from humans Flexible responsive to changes in environment, goal-oriented, opportunistic, take initiatives Social interact with other artificial agents and humans to complete their tasks and help others Jennings, Sycara, Wooldridge (1998) A Roadmap of Agent Research & Development. Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems journal.
© Eric Yu But why Agent Orientation? The “world” (application environment) has become more distributed, autonomous, networked… I.e. the agent properties are being found in the world. E.g. E-commerce, e-health, e-learning, groupwork, kn mgt Question is: how to make the software systems meet these desired properties (in the world) That’s the job of RE (and SE). But previously, no way of expressing these properties. RE languages need to be social, intentional. Most AOSE methodologies focus the system, not on relationship to the world
© Eric Yu Requirements Engineering relationship between system and environment. Bubenko (1980), Greenspan (1982), Jackson (1983)… Traditional focus: consistency, completeness, … e.g., “Three Dimensions of RE” Pohl (1993) informal -> formal (representation) opaque -> complete (specification) personal view -> common view (agreement) Suitable for a more stable, non-distributed world Recent: goals, scenarios, agents See overview in van Lamsweerde (ICSE 2000)
© Eric Yu Ubiquity The continual reduction in cost of computing capability has made it possible to introduce processing power into places and devices that would have once been uneconomic As processing capability spreads, sophistication (and intelligence of a sort) becomes ubiquitous What could benefit from having a processor embedded in it…?
© Eric Yu Interconnection Computer systems today no longer stand alone, but are networked into large distributed systems The internet is an obvious example, but networking is spreading its ever-growing tentacles… Since distributed and concurrent systems have become the norm, some researchers are putting forward theoretical models that portray computing as primarily a process of interaction
© Eric Yu Intelligence The complexity of tasks that we are capable of automating and delegating to computers has grown steadily If you don’t feel comfortable with this definition of “intelligence”, it’s probably because you are a human
© Eric Yu Delegation Computers are doing more for us – without our intervention We are giving control to computers, even in safety critical tasks One example: fly-by-wire aircraft, where the machine’s judgment may be trusted more than an experienced pilot Next on the agenda: fly-by-wire cars, intelligent braking systems, cruise control that maintains distance from car in front…
© Eric Yu Human Orientation The movement away from machine-oriented views of programming toward concepts and metaphors that more closely reflect the way we ourselves understand the world Programmers (and users!) relate to the machine differently Programmers conceptualize and implement software in terms of higher-level – more human- oriented – abstractions
© Eric Yu Global Computing What techniques might be needed to deal with systems composed of processors? Don’t be deterred by its seeming to be “science fiction” Hundreds of millions of people connected by / Social Networks even over the phone once seemed to be “science fiction”… Let’s assume that current software development models can’t handle this…
© Eric Yu Where does it bring us? Delegation and Intelligence imply the need to build computer systems that can act effectively on our behalf This implies: –The ability of computer systems to act independently –The ability of computer systems to act in a way that represents our best interests while interacting with other humans or systems
© Eric Yu Interconnection and Distribution Interconnection and Distribution have become core motifs in IT But Interconnection and Distribution, coupled with the need for systems to represent our best interests, implies systems that can cooperate and reach agreements (or even compete) with other systems that have different interests (much as we do with other people)
© Eric Yu Agents, a Definition An agent is a computer system that is capable of independent action on behalf of its user or owner (figuring out what needs to be done to satisfy design objectives, rather than constantly being told) An Agent can be Software, Hardware and People working together to achieve a goal
© Eric Yu Multiagent Systems, a Definition A multiagent system is one that consists of a number of agents, which interact with one- another In the most general case, agents will be acting on behalf of users with different goals and motivations To successfully interact, they will require the ability to cooperate, coordinate, and negotiate with each other, much as people do
© Eric Yu Spacecraft Control When a space probe makes its long flight from Earth to the outer planets, a ground crew is usually required to continually track its progress, and decide how to deal with unexpected eventualities. This is costly and, if decisions are required quickly, it is simply not practicable. For these reasons, organizations like NASA are seriously investigating the possibility of making probes more autonomous — giving them richer decision making capabilities and responsibilities. This is not fiction: NASA’s DS1 has done it!
© Eric Yu Air Traffic Control “A key air-traffic control system…suddenly fails, leaving flights in the vicinity of the airport with no air-traffic control support. Fortunately, autonomous air-traffic control systems in nearby airports recognize the failure of their peer, and cooperate to track and deal with all affected flights.” Systems taking the initiative when necessary Agents cooperating to solve problems beyond the capabilities of any individual agent
© Eric Yu A typical process model … but we need deeper understanding! Automobile insurance claims example
© Eric Yu … a deeper understanding about processes Car owner wants car to be repaired Insurance company wants to minimize claims payout Car owner wants fair appraisal of repairs Insurance agent wants to maintain good customer relations
© Eric Yu Modelling Strategic Actor Relationships and Rationales - the i* modelling framework –have goals, beliefs, abilities, commitments –depend on each other for goals to be achieved, tasks to be performed, resources to be furnished –are semi-autonomous -- not fully knowable / controllable
© Eric Yu Strategic Dependency Relationship Actor A I want … Actor B I can … DD Car Be Repaired
© Eric Yu i* objectives, premises, key concepts Actors are semi-autonomous, partially knowable Strategic actors, intentional dependencies have choice, reasons about alternate means to ends means-ends alternatives DD wants and abilities
© Eric Yu i* modeling 1.explicit intentionality goals 2. implicit intentionality agents functional decomposition means-ends alternatives wants and abilities inputs outputs DD
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© Eric Yu Development-World model refers to and reasons about… Operational-World models Alt-1 Alt-2 To-be As-is Strategic Rationale Model Strategic Dependency Models
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© Eric Yu Softgoal Operationalizations: Contribution Relationship Side-effects to softgoals: Correlation Relationship
© Eric Yu Analysis and Design Support opportunities and vulnerabilities –ability, workability, viability, believability –insurance, assurance, enforceability –node and loop analysis design issues –raising, evaluating, justifying, settling –based on qualitative reasoning [Chung Nixon Yu Mylopoulos (2000) Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering. Kluwer Academic Publishers.]
© Eric Yu Another Example: Meeting Scheduler From: E. Yu. Towards Modelling and Reasoning Support for Early- Phase Requirements Engineering 3rd IEEE Int. Symp. on Requirements Engineering (RE'97) Jan. 6- 8, 1997, Washington D.C., USA. pp
© Eric Yu “Strategic Dependency” Model Meeting Scheduling Example [Yu RE97]
© Eric Yu Revealing goals, finding alternatives Ask “Why”, “How”, “How else”
© Eric Yu Scheduling meeting …with meeting scheduler
© Eric Yu “Strategic Rationale” Model with Meeting Scheduler SR2
© Eric Yu Analyzing vulnerabilities Example of enforcement mechanism –Reciprocal dependency Loop analysis
© Eric Yu Strategic Modelling for Enterprise Integration
© Eric Yu Consider one very successful enterprise... important organizational and social aspects are missing in conventional models
© Eric Yu A Strategic Dependency Model actor goal dependency task dependency resource dependency softgoal dependency LEGEND
© Eric Yu Wants and Abilities I want... I can provide...
© Eric Yu Some strategic dependencies between IKEA and its customers
© Eric Yu Roles, Positions, Agents A Strategic Dependency model showing reward structure for improving performance, based on an example in [Majchrzak96] agent position role LEGEND
© Eric Yu For downloading OME: tected/download.html When prompt for username and password, please enter the following information. username: yorku password: ome4you