Abstract:
Support for software extensibility, interoperability and reuse are
critical concerns for long term commercial viability of any MAS and they underpin
the eventual adoption of agent technology by industry. Existing AOSE
methodologies lack adequate support for these concerns. We argue in this paper
that a methodology that uses ontologies as a central modelling artifact, beyond
the analysis phase, is better equipped to address those concerns.
We observe that the influence of ontologies in Knowledge-based Systems
(KBS) methodologies extended well beyond the initial analysis phase, leading
to domain-independent KBS methodologies in the ’90s. We reflect on those
lessons and on the roles of ontologies in KBS development. We analyse and
identify which of those roles can be transferred to an ontology-based MAS development
methodology. We identify ontology-related inter-dependencies between
the analysis and design phases. We produce a set of recommendations
towards creating a domain-independent MAS methodology that incorporates
ontologies beyond the analysis phase. We identify the essential features and
sketch the characteristic tasks within both the analysis and design phases.
