Formalising and automating the elicitation and reconciliation of requirements from multiple stakeholders. It is well recognised that requirements specifications are often error-prone and that it is much cheaper to detect and fix these errors early in the software development life cycle than later. A major problem with requirements determination is that each and every stakeholder has his/her own representation of the enterprise reality. This project seeks to take these views and use set-theore ....Formalising and automating the elicitation and reconciliation of requirements from multiple stakeholders. It is well recognised that requirements specifications are often error-prone and that it is much cheaper to detect and fix these errors early in the software development life cycle than later. A major problem with requirements determination is that each and every stakeholder has his/her own representation of the enterprise reality. This project seeks to take these views and use set-theoretical techniques from Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) to automatically generate and compare the underlying conceptual models. A process model based on FCA has been proposed which we will extend and empirically evaluate in this project. The result will be a more rigorous and yet pragmatic approach to requirements engineering which offers the greatest economic leverage.Read moreRead less
Metamodel-based Methodology for Developing Agent-Oriented Systems. In the context of building high quality software, agent technology offers substantial promise. However, its widespread deployment by industry is hampered by the lack of commercially acceptable development methodologies. Here, we expand a metamodel-based process framework (the OPEN Process Framework) to support agent-oriented (AO) software development that will eventually both form a de facto standard for AO methodologies and be ....Metamodel-based Methodology for Developing Agent-Oriented Systems. In the context of building high quality software, agent technology offers substantial promise. However, its widespread deployment by industry is hampered by the lack of commercially acceptable development methodologies. Here, we expand a metamodel-based process framework (the OPEN Process Framework) to support agent-oriented (AO) software development that will eventually both form a de facto standard for AO methodologies and be acceptable for commercial software application development. To create this extension, significant research in AO software engineering is required. Our basis will be the OPF plus elements from existing AO methodologies, notably Tropos and Gaia, whose authors will collaborate actively.Read moreRead less