agentTool process editor: supporting the design of tailored agent-based processes

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the agentTool Process Editor (APE), an Eclipse plug-in based on the Eclipse Process Framework. The aim of APE is to facilitate the design, verification, and management of custom agent-oriented software development processes. APE provides five basic structures. The Library is a repository of agent-oriented method fragments. A Process Editor allows the management of tailored processes. Task Constraints help process engineers specify guidelines to constrain how tasks can be assembled, while a Process Consistency mechanism verifies the consistency of tailored processes against those constraints. Finally, the Process Management integrates APE with the agentTool III development environment and provides a way to measure project progress using Earned Value Analysis.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques
          Subjects: Computer-aided software engineering (CASE)

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Standardization, Verification

Keywords:
CASE tool, O-MaSE, agentTool III, agentTool process editor, method engineering