| Building software to solve contemporary business problems is no easy task.
Over the last decade there has been an increasing focus on object-oriented
notations and modelling languages, perhaps at the expense of a full methodological
approach to solving the problem and giving software developers the
tools they need to comprehensively create applications within management and
market constraints—money, time, quality, and so forth. With increasingly sophisticated
applications being demanded by businesses aiming for a competitive
market advantage, object technologies are being supplemented and complemented
by agent technologies. This is especially true in areas such as ambient
intelligence, e-business, Web services, peer-to-peer networks, and
bioinformatics. These areas demand software that is robust, can operate within
a wide range of environments, can evolve over time to cope with changing
requirements, is highly customizable to meet the needs of a wide range of users,
and is sufficiently secure to protect personal data and other assets on behalf
of its stakeholders. To fulfil these requirements, builders of systems need
an appropriate agent-oriented methodology—the topic of this book. |
