On the Development of Multi-agent Systems Product Lines: A Domain Engineering Process

• Published in: Agent-Oriented Software Engineering X pp. 125 - 139
• Main Authors: Nunes, Ingrid, de Lucena, Carlos J. P., Kulesza, Uirá, Nunes, Camila
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin, Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Domain Engineering; Multi-agent Systems; Software Process; Software Product Lines
• ISBN: 9783642192074; 3642192076
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-19208-1_9

Multi-agent System Product Lines (MAS-PL) are the integration of two promising technologies: Multi-agent Systems (MASs), which provides a powerful abstraction to model features with autonomous and pro-active behavior, and SoftwareProductLines (SPL), whose aim is to reduce both time-to-market and costs in the development of system families by the exploitation of commonalities among family members. This paper presents a domain engineering process for developing MAS-PL. It defines activities and work products, whose purposes include allowing agent variability and providing agent features traceability, both not addressed by current SPL and MAS approaches.