A Case For New Directions In Agent-Oriented Software Engineering

The state-of-the-art of Agent-oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) is insufficiently reflected in the state-of-practice in developing complex distributed systems. This paper discusses software engineering (SE) areas that have not been widely addressed in the context of AOSE, leading to a lack of mechanisms that support the development of Multi-agent Systems (MASs) based on traditional SE principles, such as modularity, reusability and maintainability. This discussion is based on an exploratory study of the development of a family of buyer agents following the belief-desire-intention model and using a Software Product Line architecture. Based on the discussion presented in this paper, we hope to encourage the AOSE community to address particular SE issues on the development of MAS that have not yet been (widely) considered.